Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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Emerg Med Australas · Dec 2016
Description of the ambulance services participating in the Aus-ROC Australian and New Zealand out-of-hospital cardiac arrest Epistry.
The present study aimed to describe and examine similarities and differences in the current service provision and resuscitation protocols of the ambulance services participating in the Aus-ROC Australian and New Zealand out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) Epistry. Understanding these similarities and differences is important in identifying ambulance service factors that might explain regional variation in survival of OHCA in the Aus-ROC Epistry. ⋯ There is marked variation between ambulance services currently participating in the Aus-ROC Australian and New Zealand OHCA Epistry with respect to workforce characteristics and key variable definitions. This variation between ambulance services might account for a proportion of the regional variation in survival of OHCA.
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Emerg Med Australas · Dec 2016
Observational StudyFinger counting method is more accurate than age-based weight estimation formulae in estimating the weight of Hong Kong children presenting to the emergency department.
The aim of the present study was to evaluate the finger counting method and compare its performance with four commonly used age-based weight estimation formulae in children aged 1-9 years presenting to the ED in Hong Kong. ⋯ The finger counting method outperforms the commonly used age-based weight estimation formulae in children aged 1-9 years presenting to the ED in Hong Kong.
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Emerg Med Australas · Dec 2016
Improving clean-catch contamination rates: A prospective interventional cohort study.
The clean-catch method of urine collection carries a high contamination rate. This study aims to evaluate the effects on contamination rate of providing a parent handout and pre-made urine collection pack for clean-catch urine collection. ⋯ The contamination rate of clean-catch urine did not improve with the implementation of a pre-made urine collection pack including standardised written instructions.
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Emerg Med Australas · Dec 2016
Which patients should be transported to the emergency department? A perpetual prehospital dilemma.
To examine the ability of paramedics to identify patients who could be managed in the community and to identify predictors that could be used to accurately identify patients who should be transported to EDs. ⋯ Lower acuity patients who could be treated in the community were not accurately identified by paramedics. This process requires further evaluation.
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Emerg Med Australas · Dec 2016
Association between ambulance dispatch priority and patient condition.
To compare chief complaints of the Medical Priority Dispatch System in terms of the match between dispatch priority and patient condition. ⋯ Scope for reducing under-triage and over-triage of ambulance dispatch varies between chief complaints of the Medical Priority Dispatch System. The highlighted chief complaints should be considered for future research into improving ambulance dispatch system performance.