Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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To determine if medication review by a clinical pharmacist of older patients in the ED impacted on admission to hospital and other outcomes. ⋯ The presence of an experienced pharmacist in the ED reduced hospital admissions. Further study is required to determine longer term impacts of General Medical Practitioner acceptance of pharmacists' recommendations.
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Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2015
ReviewReview article: Quality of follow-up care for anaphylaxis in the emergency department.
The prevalence of allergic disorders is rising, with a corresponding increase in patients presenting to an ED with anaphylaxis. Appropriate follow up is required for patients with anaphylaxis. We reviewed two potential performance indicators for the quality of post-discharge care: (i) the rate of self-injectable adrenaline prescription; and (ii) the referral rate for follow-up care with allergy specialists. ⋯ Prescription rates for self-injected adrenaline at the time of discharge following anaphylaxis varied from 0% to 68%, with a mean of 44%. Allergist referral rates ranged from 0% to 84%, with a mean of 33%. This review demonstrates that there is room for improvement in post-discharge care for patients who present to the ED with an anaphylactic reaction.
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Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2015
Tyranny of distance and rural prehospital care: Is there potential for a national rural responder network?
Critical illness intersects with the workload of rural doctors in Australia, mostly via their on-call responsibilities to rural hospitals. A significant proportion of these are prehospital incidents - vehicle crashes, farming injuries, bushfire etc. ⋯ Ambulance services in rural areas are often volunteer based, and with increasing remoteness via the 'tyranny of distance' comes the likelihood of increased delay in arrival of specialist retrieval services. Potential exists to utilise rural clinicians to respond to prehospital incidents in certain defined circumstances, as suggested by a recent survey of rural doctors.