Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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Body packing is the term used to describe the ingestion of illicit substances for transport across control lines. Where the diagnosis of body packing is made independently in the ED, the issue of reporting the case to law enforcement officials poses a difficult scenario given the legal obligations of patient confidentiality. We describe a case of a body packer brought into the ED and subsequently reported to the police. The conflicts between patient confidentiality versus statutory exceptions to confidentiality along with case law regarding this scenario are discussed.
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Emerg Med Australas · Dec 2012
Comparative StudyComparison of early biomarker strategies with the Heart Foundation of Australia/Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand guidelines for risk stratification of emergency department patients with chest pain.
To compare cardiac risk stratification using a 0 and 2 h point-of-care (POC) cardiac troponin (cTn), 0 and 2 h POC multi-biomarkers against the 0 and 6 h laboratory cTn reference standard. ⋯ Using a 2 h POC cTn-only biomarker strategy with the HF-A/CS-ANZ guidelines accurately identified a population at intermediate risk of 30-day events in whom further objective testing might be accelerated, allowing subsequent early discharge of the majority of this cohort. Within 2 h of presentation a high risk population could be identified in whom early management, including admission, was required.
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Emerg Med Australas · Dec 2012
Improving the attractiveness of an emergency medicine career to medical students: An exploratory study.
To describe perceptions of medical students and emergency doctors towards careers in emergency medicine (EM), and to identify influences on career choice. ⋯ Increasing the attractiveness of a career in EM requires changing student perceptions of lifestyle and satisfaction benefits, access to EM subspecialties, increasing ED research, information about job security, and improved work conditions.
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The first extended care paramedic (ECP) model of care in New Zealand was introduced in the Kapiti region, north of Wellington in 2009. The ECP model aimed to increase the proportion of patients presenting to the ambulance service who could be treated in the community. This study evaluated the first 1000 patients seen by ECPs. ⋯ We observed that ECPs have significant potential to reduce hospital ED attendances by treating more patients in the community, and this is associated with a low rate of subsequent ED presentations. Prioritisation of dispatch of ECPs to particular types of patients might be useful in maximising this reduction.