The New Zealand medical journal
-
Multicenter Study
Medication-related patient harm in New Zealand hospitals.
The purpose of this study is to identify patterns of medication-related harm from a national perspective, and to use this information to inform decisions on where to focus medication safety efforts. This study updates a 2013 study using the same methodology. ⋯ This paper confirms earlier work that medication-related harms are common, occur both in hospitals and in the community, and are a substantial burden for patients and our healthcare system. Work is underway at local and national levels to decrease this harm, with a focus on the high-risk medicines most commonly implicated.
-
Multicenter Study Observational Study
Therapeutic hypothermia is independently associated with favourable outcome after resuscitation from outof-hospital cardiac arrest: a retrospective, observational cohort study.
To determine the association between use of therapeutic hypothermia (TH) after resuscitation from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) and neurological outcome. ⋯ The use of TH in patients admitted to ICU after resuscitation following OHCA was independently associated with favourable neurological outcome.
-
Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Alcohol and injury: a survey in primary care settings.
Several high profile events in Dunedin have focused attention on alcohol-related harm in the city. We sought to obtain local information regarding alcohol use and drinking location in order to better inform planning for local strategies to reduce alcohol-related harm in the future. ⋯ These results provide new information with respect to the role of drinking location in alcohol-related harm, in particular the important role of drinking in private homes. It also demonstrates the association between alcohol and injury in primary care settings in New Zealand. The current review of the Sale of Liquor Act is timely and should consider restricting the availability of alcohol in on and off licensed premises in order to minimise hazardous drinking in a range of drinking locations.
-
Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Contemporary New Zealand coefficients for the Trauma Injury Severity Score: TRISS(NZ).
To develop local contemporary coefficients for the Trauma Injury Severity Score in New Zealand, TRISS(NZ), and to evaluate their performance at predicting survival against the original TRISS coefficients. ⋯ Both TRISS models accurately predicted survival for blunt mechanism trauma. However, TRISS(NZ) coefficients were statistically superior to TRISS coefficients. A strong case exists for replacing TRISS coefficients in the New Zealand benchmarking software with these updated TRISS(NZ) estimates.
-
Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Emergency Department utilisation: a natural experiment.
In February 2005 a new Emergency Department (ED) was opened at Waitakere Hospital in West Auckland, New Zealand. Part of the rationale for this was the expectation that it would reduce attendances to the four established EDs in the Auckland region. This study was undertaken to determine whether this happened. ⋯ The opening of a new ED may have contributed to an increase in total ED presentations seen within the region overall, with no corresponding reduction in attendances at neighbouring hospitals.