Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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Emerg Med Australas · Aug 2019
Review Case ReportsReview article: Let us talk about snakebite management: A discussion on many levels.
We want to discuss antivenom use in snakebite clinical practice guidelines. Coronial reviews in Victoria of two cases of snakebite envenomation, one described in detail below, prompted us to submit this paper for a wider audience and debate. Venom and antivenom levels were measured in the case detailed below, but not in the other. ⋯ The Victorian Department of Health and Human Services and the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine were instructed to review snakebite management guidelines, particularly with respect to antivenom dosage. The discussion that took place among medical experts led to considerable media attention. We discuss the potential fallout when there is no consensus among medical experts.
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Emerg Med Australas · Aug 2019
Paediatric acute care: Highlights from the Paediatric Acute Care-Advanced Paediatric Life Support Conference, Hobart, 2018.
The Paediatric Acute Care Conference (PACC) is an annual conference organised by APLS Australia to advance paediatric acute care topics for clinicians in pre-hospital medicine, EDs, acute paediatrics, intensive care and anaesthesia. The PACC 2018 was held in Hobart, Tasmania. We provide a summary of some of the presentations.
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Emerg Med Australas · Aug 2019
Relevance of using length of stay as a key indicator to monitor emergency department performance: Case study from a rural hospital in Thailand.
The present study explores factors related to length of stay (LOS) in a rural public hospital in Thailand and assesses the feasibility of using LOS as an ED key performance indicator. ⋯ Factors related to LOS in a rural hospital in Thailand are similar and in contrast to those of a previous study in a medical school setting. Reasons for the discrepancy of findings and implications for improving ED services were discussed. Our data support the notion of controversy in using LOS as a key indicator of ED performance in this rural hospital setting. Thus, it is imperative to not rely on any single throughput or process indicators to monitor ED performance, but to take into account a set of indicators including patient outcomes.