Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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Emerg Med Australas · Apr 2015
ReviewReview article: Emergency department models of care in the context of care quality and cost: A systematic review.
To identify current ED models of care and their impact on care quality, care effectiveness, and cost. A systematic search of key health databases (Medline, CINAHL, Cochrane, EMbase) was conducted to identify literature on ED models of care. Additionally, a focused review of the contents of 11 international and national emergency medicine, nursing and health economic journals (published between 2010 and 2013) was undertaken with snowball identification of references of the most recent and relevant papers. ⋯ Models often varied to account for site specific characteristics (e.g. onsite inpatient units) or to suit staffing profiles (e.g. extended scope physiotherapist), ED geographical location (e.g. metropolitan or rural site), and patient demographic profile (e.g. paediatrics, older persons, ethnicity). Only a few studies conducted cost-effectiveness analysis of service models. Although various models of delivering emergency healthcare exist, further research is required in order to make accurate and reliable assessments of their safety, clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness.
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Emerg Med Australas · Apr 2015
Can emergency physicians accurately and reliably assess acute vertigo in the emergency department?
To validate a clinical diagnostic tool, used by emergency physicians (EPs), to diagnose the central cause of patients presenting with vertigo, and to determine interrater reliability of this tool. ⋯ In the hands of EPs, STANDING showed a good inter-observer agreement and accuracy validated against the local standard of care.