Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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Emerg Med Australas · Apr 2021
Lost bed capacity in emergency departments: A descriptive analysis and data visualisation exploration.
To map utilisation of bed resources within an ED over time, in order to determine the proportions of patient stay spent receiving emergency care versus non-emergent care. To produce visualisations that effectively convey this bed utilisation. ⋯ A considerable proportion of ED length of stay is because of patients remaining in an ED bed after their emergency care is concluded. Absolute time is much greater for admitted patients than for discharged patients, and therefore efforts to reduce LBC are likely to reduce overall ED length of stay. LBC heatmaps may provide an intuitively useful, potentially automated tool to understand these problems.
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Emerg Med Australas · Apr 2021
Using non-mydriatic fundus photography to detect fundus pathology in Australian metropolitan emergency departments: A prospective prevalence and diagnostic accuracy study.
To determine the prevalence of fundus pathology in metropolitan Australian EDs utilising a non-mydriatic fundus photography screening programme. Secondary objectives include diagnostic accuracy among emergency physicians compared to telehealth ophthalmologist review. ⋯ Fundus photography detects a clinically significant proportion of fundus pathology and urgent diagnoses. Telehealth specialist image review is important to detect some important, time-critical illnesses that can be missed in routine care. This offers an accurate alternative to direct ophthalmoscopy that warrants further research in Australian EDs.
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Emerg Med Australas · Apr 2021
An impact of national lockdown towards emergency department visits and admission rates during the COVID-19 pandemic in Thailand: A hospital-based study.
To evaluate the impact of the national lockdown because of the 2019 coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic towards the ED visits and admission rates in Thailand. ⋯ The national lockdown in Thailand was associated with a significant reduction in average daily ED visits across traumatic and non-traumatic patients. Communication from healthcare professionals and public health officers is necessary to reinforce the importance of timely ED visits for acute health conditions.
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Emerg Med Australas · Apr 2021
Observational StudyAfter-hours emergency department care: Does time or day of arrival affect survival?
To determine whether after-hours presentation to EDs is associated with differences in 7-day and 30-day mortality. The influence of patient case-mix and workforce staffing differences are also explored. ⋯ After-hours presentation on the weekend to an ED is associated with higher 7-day mortality even after controlling for case-mix.
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Emerg Med Australas · Apr 2021
Innovative pathway for managing children and adolescents with mental health concerns in the emergency department: An intervention feasibility study.
To investigate if an innovative clinical pathway for managing child and adolescent mental health (MH) ED presentations reduces average length of stay (LOS) and improves carer satisfaction. ⋯ This study provides valuable information about the benefits of the KALM pathway in managing child and adolescent MH presentations to ED. This new pathway reduces the LOS in ED and improves carer experience compared to the usual care pathway.