Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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Emerg Med Australas · Aug 2017
The chances that an emergency physician will demonstrate three abdominal aortic aneurysms by ultrasound in the emergency department for credentialing: A statistician's view.
The Australasian College for Emergency Medicine requires 15 proctored examinations of the aorta for credentialing in ultrasonography for abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). Furthermore, at least three examinations need to be positive for an aneurysm. In the ED where AAA presentations are sporadic, what are the chances that an emergency physician (EP) will have the opportunity to demonstrate three AAAs in the next 12 months? The probability of an event occurring within a given time-frame can be modelled by the Poisson distribution. ⋯ For an EP to be almost 100% certain of meeting the credentialing requirements, he/she would need almost 10 proctored ultrasound cases of AAA to be available within his/her shifts during the year. The Poisson distribution has enabled us to model the probability of encountering a given number of AAA in the ED. Analysis such as this may help rationalise the numbers needed for credentialing.
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Emerg Med Australas · Aug 2017
Letter Case ReportsSimple and effective paediatric retrieval treatment.
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Emerg Med Australas · Aug 2017
Pre-hospital and retrieval medicine: Clinical governance and workforce models.
Pre-hospital and retrieval medicine (PHARM) has developed significantly in the past decade. This perspective article proposes that PHARM should develop with a clear focus on contemporary health governance principles, and that its workforce and models of care adopt modern interdisciplinary approaches. Many of the older systems of managing clinical standards, and outdated cultural approaches to professional 'turf', workforce and scope of practice have little place in high-performance organisations. This paper calls us to attention with a recommendation that best and safest systems of care, structured to optimise patient outcomes and system performance should be our goal.
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Emerg Med Australas · Aug 2017
Impact of emergency department discharge stream short stay unit performance and hospital bed occupancy rates on access and patient flowmeasures: A single site study.
The ED discharge stream short stay units (EDSSUs) aim to facilitate patient flows through EDs. We investigate the relationship between EDSSU census and hospital bed occupancy rates (BORs) on National Emergency Access Target (NEAT) performance and did-not-wait (DNW) rates at a tertiary metropolitan adult ED in Sydney, Australia. ⋯ Appropriate use of EDSSU provides effective conduit for ongoing patients' management beyond mandated timelines. Health systems should focus on reducing hospital BORs to mitigate exclusive ED pressure to deliver NEAT performance targets.