Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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Emerg Med Australas · Dec 2019
Trends of emergency department presentations with a mental health diagnosis by age, Australia, 2004-05 to 2016-17: A secondary data analysis.
The present study aims to explore for Australia: (i) the trends of ED presentations with a mental health (MH) diagnosis by age group; and (ii) whether those trends differ from all ED presentations. ⋯ The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare should consider expanding the breadth of MH diagnoses they report to better identify the impact of MH on ED presentations. Between 2004-05 and 2016-17, high ED utilisation by children and older persons, and the increasing burden of MHdx presentations for youth, younger adults and children suggest that healthcare planning strategies for urgent and emergency care cannot afford to overlook the growing impact of these sub-groups.
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Emerg Med Australas · Dec 2019
Development and evaluation of a code frame to identify potential primary care presentations in the hospital emergency department.
A major challenge in evaluating the appropriateness of ED presentations is the lack of a universal and workable definition of patients who could have received primary care instead. Our objective was to develop a standardised code frame to identify potential primary care patients in the ED. ⋯ This standardised code frame enables accurate retrospective local and national data estimations. The code frame could be used prospectively to evaluate interventions such as diverting patients to primary care settings, and to identify populations for specifically targeted interventions. The conservative nature of the code frame ensures that only those that can safely receive care in a primary care setting are identified as potential primary care.
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Emerg Med Australas · Dec 2019
Knowledge, attitude and practices of clinical quality and performance assessment among emergency medical services personnel in South Africa: A mixed methods study.
Deficits in healthcare quality are becoming an increasing concern globally. Within the low- to middle-income country (LMIC) setting insufficient quality has become a bigger barrier to reducing mortality than insufficient access, where 60% of deaths from conditions amenable to healthcare, are due to poor quality care. Measuring quality is key towards improving the effectiveness of healthcare in this setting. ⋯ Within EMS, quality systems are in their infancy. It could be argued that this is somewhat more pronounced in the LMICs, where knowledge of organisational quality systems was found to be poor. Despite this, there was a strong general understanding of the importance of quality systems, and the role they have to play in this setting.
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Emerg Med Australas · Dec 2019
Observational StudyAccuracy of parental estimate of child's weight in a paediatric emergency department.
To determine the accuracy of using parental estimate of a child's weight compared to actual weight in a paediatric emergency setting. ⋯ Parent estimate is an accurate weight estimation method when parents are willing to give an estimate. There is ethnic variation in accuracy that should be taken into account when applying this method.
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Emerg Med Australas · Dec 2019
Impact of electric scooters to a tertiary emergency department: 8-week review after implementation of a scooter share scheme.
A retrospective audit of presentations to a tertiary trauma centre reviewing the demographics of electric scooter injuries in the first 2 months of the scooter-share scheme, which was commenced in Brisbane in November 2018. ⋯ The findings characterised injury patterns and costs associated with electric scooters in our ED. Given the increasing popularity of electric scooters as an alternate form of transportation, our study may help to inform public policy for future injury prevention.