Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
-
Emerg Med Australas · Jun 2023
Observational StudyClinical characteristics of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander emergency department patients with suspected acute coronary syndrome.
To describe the demographics, presentation characteristics, clinical features and cardiac outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients who present to a regional cardiac referral centre ED with suspected acute coronary syndrome (ACS). ⋯ Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients with suspected ACS have a high burden of traditional cardiac risk factors, regardless of whether they are eventually diagnosed with ACS. These patients may benefit from assessment for coronary artery disease regardless of age at presentation.
-
Emerg Med Australas · Jun 2023
Impact of alcohol policy changes on substance-affected patients attending an emergency department in the Northern Territory with police.
Assess the impact of Northern Territory alcohol policy changes to ED utilisation at Royal Darwin-Palmerston Regional Hospitals. ⋯ The sequential introduction of broad sweeping alcohol policy changes introduced by the Northern Territory government was associated with significant reductions in ED utilisation. The proximity of the introduction of interventions creates difficulties identifying individual policy influence.
-
Emerg Med Australas · Jun 2023
What factors help and hinder efforts to address incivility in Australasian emergency departments? A modified Delphi study of FACEM perspectives.
Workplace incivility is a global challenge for healthcare and a major leadership challenge facing emergency physicians. However, little is known about emergency physicians' understanding of the factors that help and hinder attempts to address incivility, or what emergency physicians believe are the priority factors to address. The present study makes a novel contribution to research in this area by examining the perceived enablers of, and barriers to, efforts to address incivility in Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand EDs. ⋯ The causes of incivility in Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand EDs are complex and highlight incivility in EDs as a key adaptive leadership challenge of emergency physicians. Fundamentally, the results underscore the need to foster a workplace culture of respect, inclusion and civility in Australasian hospitals.
-
Emerg Med Australas · Jun 2023
What can coronial cases tell us about the quality of emergency healthcare for prisoners in Australia?
This research aimed to examine the legal and regulatory obligations of authorities and healthcare professionals in the provision of prison emergency health services and to identify problems in the provision of emergency care to prisoners by using case examples from coronial findings. ⋯ Coronial findings and royal commissions have repeatedly identified deficiencies in the emergency healthcare provided to prisoners in Australia. These deficiencies are operational, clinical and stigmatic and not limited to a single prison or jurisdiction. Applying a health quality of care framework focussed on prevention and chronic health management, appropriate assessment and escalation when urgent medical assistance is requested, and a structured audit framework could avoid future preventable deaths in prisons.
-
Emerg Med Australas · Jun 2023
Reducing diagnostic errors in the emergency department at the time of patient treatment.
The purpose of the present study was to compare and combine the radiographic interpretation accuracy of emergency clinicians and radiographers in clinical practice. ⋯ This is the first study to directly compare and combine the accuracy of an emergency clinician's radiographic interpretation with a radiographer's interpretation within clinical practice. The present study demonstrated that with the addition of a radiographer's interpretation, an emergency clinician's interpretation can be more accurate than the emergency clinician's interpretation in isolation. This highlights the value of a radiographer's interpretation that can complement an emergency clinician's interpretation when a radiologist's report is unavailable.