Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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Emerg Med Australas · Aug 2020
Understanding childhood injuries in rural areas: Using Rural Acute Hospital Data Register to address previous data deficiencies.
The state of childhood injury in rural areas of Victoria is poorly understood. Currently only data on those children transferred from smaller hospital settings to larger settings appear in existing government datasets, significantly underestimating the characteristics of injury. ⋯ The Rural Acute Hospital Data Register database captures the presentations at low-resource sites and highlights as much as a 35% deficit in the data that is currently available to inform injury prevention and safety initiatives in Victoria.
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Emerg Med Australas · Aug 2020
Does facility type and location impact upon patient experiences in emergency departments? Secondary analysis of a state-wide, cross-sectional survey.
To identify the extent to which patient experiences in the ED differ depending on facility type (based on bed numbers, services available and annual separations), and location (level of remoteness). ⋯ Patients attending smaller and more rurally located EDs reported more positive experiences than those attending larger, metropolitan EDs on two of the 13 topic areas. However, these differences were marginal. Future research should aim to determine what constitutes clinically meaningful differences between groups when comparing patient-reported experience scores, and understand the characteristics of small and rural EDs that may be associated with better patient experiences.
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Emerg Med Australas · Aug 2020
Antibiotic prescribing in patients who presented to the emergency department with dog bites: A descriptive review of current practice.
To describe the current practice of prophylactic antibiotic prescribing for patients presenting to the ED with a dog bite, and compare management against existing guidelines. ⋯ Prophylactic antibiotics are extensively used for patients with dog bites. There is scope to rationalise antibiotic use and route of antibiotic administration in patients with dog bites.
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An unconscious patient with an extra-dural haematoma may not survive transfer to a neurosurgical centre for definitive care. This article describes a simple approach to a decompressive craniotomy which may be life-saving in these patients when a neurosurgeon is not available.
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Emerg Med Australas · Aug 2020
Intimate partner violence screening and response in New South Wales emergency departments: A multi-site feasibility study.
To test feasibility of a systematic approach to routine screening and response for intimate partner violence among women presenting to three New South Wales EDs. ⋯ The present study demonstrates that it is both possible and relevant, given the 18% disclosure rate, to screen women in relation intimate partner violence in EDs and provide a psycho-social response within 1 h. More needs to be done to address barriers to screening to provide opportunities for early intervention.