Emergency medicine journal : EMJ
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We describe the expansion and adaptation of a frailty response team to assess older people in their usual place of residence. The team had commenced a weekend service to a limited area in February 2020. As a consequence of demand related to the COVID-19 pandemic, we expanded it and adapted the model of care to provide a 7-day service to our entire catchment area. Five hundred and ninety two patient reviews have been completed in the first 105 days of operation with 43 patients transferred to hospital for further investigation or management following assessment.
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Multicenter Study
Variation in CT use for paediatric head injuries across different types of emergency departments in Australia and New Zealand.
CT of the brain (CTB) for paediatric head injury is used less frequently at tertiary paediatric emergency departments (EDs) in Australia and New Zealand than in North America. In preparation for release of a national head injury guideline and given the high variation in CTB use found in North America, we aimed to assess variation in CTB use for paediatric head injury across hospitals types. ⋯ In Australia and New Zealand, there was no difference in CTB use for paediatric patients with head injuries across tertiary, urban/suburban and regional/rural EDs with similar intragroup variation. This information can inform a binational head injury guideline.
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To assess if a nurse-led application of a paediatric head injury clinical decision tool would be safe compared with current practice. ⋯ A negative HIDATq appears safe in our ED. Potentially 20% (349/1739) of all patients with head injuries presenting to our department could be discharged by nurses at triage with adequate safety netting advice. This increases to 50% (543/1739), if patients with lacerations or abrasions were given advice and discharged at triage. A large multicentre study is required to validate the tool.