Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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Emerg Med Australas · Dec 2015
Dispatcher-assisted cardiopulmonary resuscitation protocol improves diagnosis and resuscitation recommendations for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.
Despite recent efforts, most people are not trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), which has a major impact on survival following cardiac arrest (CA). We have set up a dispatcher-assisted CPR protocol at our call centre, based on international guidelines issued in 2010. The aim of our study was to evaluate the impact of this protocol on CA diagnosis and quantity of recommendations given by telephone dispatchers to untrained witnesses. ⋯ Implementation of a dispatcher-assisted CPR protocol was efficient in improving both CA diagnosis and CPR recommendations given to untrained witnesses for out-of-hospital CA with a very short time of dispatcher training. It is a simple and efficacious measure, at no additional cost and with the promises of improving prognosis following cardiac arrest in a centre not equipped with computerised dispatcher support programmes.
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Emerg Med Australas · Dec 2015
Management of mental health patients in Victorian emergency departments: A 10 year follow-up study.
Despite efforts to restructure mental health (MH) services across Victoria, the social and economic burden of MH illness continues to grow. This study compares MH presentations to EDs with a study undertaken 10 years earlier. ⋯ Despite increasing MH-related presentations, changes in ED practice have allowed improvements in delivery of care through a shortened ED length of stay and the virtual elimination of very long stays over 24 h. However, there continues to be significant variability in management and performance across hospital sites. Identifying which interventions lead to standout site performance, and subsequent application more broadly, may improve future ED delivery of care.
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Emerg Med Australas · Dec 2015
Management of acute agitation in Hong Kong and comparisons with Australasia.
Little is known about the use of sedation drugs for the management of acute agitation in Hong Kong's Accident and Emergency Departments (AEDs) and how it compares with Australasian practice. ⋯ Haloperidol and benzodiazepines are frequently used as monotherapy for the management of acute agitation in Hong Kong's AEDs. Management in Hong Kong differs from Australasian practice in that combination therapy is less common and clinicians' choice of sedation drugs are less variable overall. Results suggest that future work on CPG development and training regarding the safe use of combination therapy would be well received.
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Emerg Med Australas · Dec 2015
ReviewReview article: Very serious and non-ignorable problem: Crisis in emergency medical response in catastrophic event.
The crisis of medical response caused by catastrophic events might significantly affect emergency response, and might even initiate more serious social crisis. Therefore, early identification and timely blocking the formation of crisis in the early phase after a major disaster will improve the efficiency of medical response in a major disaster and avoid serious consequences. In the present paper, we described the emergency strategy to crisis management of medical response after a major disaster. ⋯ First, all relevant society forces led by the government and military should be linkages. Second, a powerful medical response system must be based on a strong support system. Third, countermeasures of medical surge should be applied flexibly to the special and specific disaster environment, to promote the effective medical response force.