Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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Emerg Med Australas · Aug 2016
Admission of medical patients from the emergency department: An assessment of the attitudes, perspectives and practices of internal medicine and emergency medicine trainees.
We sought to obtain a deeper understanding of the differing needs and expectations of inpatient and ED medical staff regarding the admission process for medical patients. ⋯ Substantial barriers to more harmonious admission processes exist. A 'paradigm shift' where roles and responsibilities are clear might be required. Defusing tension across the ED-inpatient interface should improve efficiency and ensure that patient outcomes remain the focus.
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Emerg Med Australas · Aug 2016
Effect of a pager notification system on Australasian Triage Scale category 2 patients in a paediatric emergency department.
Australasian EDs have introduced innovative processes to ensure safe and timely management of patients. Our ED introduced a dedicated pager system to provide rapid assessment of Australasian Triage Scale (ATS) category 2 patients in an attempt to expedite ED care. The present paper aims to evaluate the impact of this initiative on time to clinician, ED length of stay (LOS) and clinical outcomes in a tertiary paediatric ED. ⋯ The rapid assessment pager system proved beneficial in reducing triage to clinician times for ATS category 2 patients but showed no improvement in overall ED LOS or disease-specific clinical quality indicators. Further research is needed to determine the influence of other components of ED functioning on clinical outcomes, as well as the overall clinical impact a pager system has on other measures of quality such as patient satisfaction and other subgroups of patients.
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Emerg Med Australas · Aug 2016
Observational StudyTime to analgesia in an emergency department in Eastern Nepal.
Nepal is a least developed country, with limited healthcare resources. An 18 month Fellowship in Emergency Medicine has contributed some improvements to care. This study assessed time to first analgesia in higher and lower acuity patients. ⋯ Time to analgesia for triage score 2 is lower compared to higher triage score. However, a large proportion of patients still do not receive analgesia. This is likely addressed by using a combination of strategies.