Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
-
Emerg Med Australas · Feb 2025
Effects of a Virtual Trauma Clinic on admissions and length of stay for minor to moderate trauma.
To investigate the feasibility of a Virtual Trauma Clinic (VTC) for patients with minor to moderate trauma, and evaluate patient satisfaction and outcomes. ⋯ Patients with minor to moderate trauma have ongoing care needs with high rates of pain, psychological distress and disability remaining prevalent long after discharge. VTC provided an innovative strategy for hospital avoidance with high levels of patient satisfaction and no adverse effects on safety. The overall quality of care for these patients was enhanced through the provision of standardised, patient-centred and multidisciplinary follow-up.
-
Emerg Med Australas · Feb 2025
Supporting clinicians post exposure to potentially traumatic events: Emergency department peer support program evaluation.
Workers in EDs are regularly exposed to potentially traumatic events. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been exponential interest in peer support programs (PSPs) in a range of settings. We describe a PSP implemented in 2017 at University Hospital Geelong (UHG) ED together with results of a survey. ⋯ ED Doctors place high value on the PSP.
-
Ambulance ramping, the delay to transfer of a patient arriving at an ED by ambulance into an ED treatment space and handover of care to ED clinicians, is a problem in all Australian states and territories and New Zealand. It is a symptom of ED overcrowding and access block and has been associated with adverse health outcomes for some patient groups. The questions arise, who might be legally responsible for the care of patients who are ramped and does their physical location matter? The short answers are 'everyone' and 'no', however, whether there will be a breach of duty depends on the reasonableness of responses and resource allocation considerations.
-
Emerg Med Australas · Feb 2025
Randomized Controlled TrialAssociations with early vomiting when using intranasal fentanyl and nitrous oxide for procedural sedation in children: A secondary analysis of a randomised controlled trial.
Intranasal (IN) fentanyl and nitrous oxide (N2O) can be combined to provide procedural sedation and analgesia to children. This combination is advantageous because of rapid onset of action and non-parenteral administration, but is associated with increased vomiting. We sought to describe the associations of demographic and procedural factors with early vomiting when using this combination in children. ⋯ We found that higher doses of IN fentanyl were associated with higher risk of early vomiting when administered with N2O in children. Other factors did not appear to be associated with vomiting.