Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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Emerg Med Australas · Dec 2008
Multicenter StudyInterrater reliability of the Australasian Triage Scale for mental health patients.
To evaluate interrater reliability of the Australasian Triage Scale (ATS) for mental health patients in ED. ⋯ There is a need to develop and implement a validated, standardized national triage tool for mental health patients. The ATS per se is insufficient to ensure acceptable interrater reliability, particularly during busy periods in the ED, and between states. Given the influence the ATS has on key outcomes, it is imperative for this tool to be robust.
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Emerg Med Australas · Dec 2008
Improving documentation of endotracheal intubation in an adult emergency department.
To evaluate the effect of an educational intervention and documentary pro forma on the adequacy of documentation of intubation in an adult ED. ⋯ Documentation improved slightly following the intervention, but was still unsatisfactory. We believe that to achieve an adequate level of documentation in the medical record for an episode of intubation, there needs to be a formal and structured mechanism, either via mandatory use of a specifically designed form and/or by participation in an organized data registry.
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To profile a helicopter emergency medical service in rural Australia. To assess patient injury severities and outcomes. To compare missions involving ambulance officers with physicians. To determine any time advantage of the aircraft over ground transfer. ⋯ We could not identify a significant survival benefit attributable to the addition of a doctor, although numbers for this comparison were small. Predicting missions where flight physicians might provide benefit remain imprecise and should be a priority area for prospective evaluation. We have demonstrated that in the absence of special circumstances, a helicopter response within 100 km from base does not improve time to definitive care.
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Emerg Med Australas · Dec 2008
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative StudyComparison of high- and low-fidelity mannequins for clinical performance assessment.
A pilot study exploring the differences between high- and low-fidelity mannequins in the assessment of clinical performance. ⋯ There was no significant objective difference between the two mannequins.