Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2010
Comparative StudyEmergency care workload units: a novel tool to compare emergency department activity.
Funding bodies have traditionally used attendance figures as a way of determining the allocation of funding for resources in the EDs. Using attendance figures only might not accurately reflect the funding and resources required. The need to create an easily implemented tool to compare workload and resources required was identified. Using the Australasian Triage Scale, a tool was developed to estimate staffing requirements and resource use within each ED. This, although currently not validated, provides a promising start in finding a way to accurately determine ED workload. ⋯ This tool provides a simple method to calculate equitable distribution of staffing and budget allocation based on workload across the different EDs within Australia.
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Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2010
Case ReportsGetting the blues at a rock concert: a case of severe methaemoglobinaemia.
Methaemoglobin is the form of haemoglobin in which the iron moiety of the haem group has been oxidized from the ferrous to the ferric state. Methaemoglobinaemia is due to either an increase in the production of the oxidized haem moiety or due to decreased conversion back to the reduced form. This article presents a case of amyl nitrite-induced methaemoglobinaemia and discusses the diagnosis and treatment of this disorder.