Measuring quality of care for musculoskeletal injuries in the Emergency Department.

Development of quality indicators for care of patients with musculoskeletal injuries.

Grant ID: EMPJ-103R22-2014

Lay Summary

The increasing demand on emergency health care in Australia has seen recent emphasis on clinical redesign initiatives that are focused on time-based performance measures and activity-based funding. While congestion in emergency departments continues, and emphasis is placed on reaching these time targets, the quality of care that patients receive when presenting with non-life threatening injuries is potentially compromised.

To date, there is a lack of high-level evidence surrounding the type of quality indicators (QIs) that should be used in EDs to measure quality of care. This project will develop QIs for care of patients who present to EDs with musculoskeletal injuries under appropriate expert review. The final QI set will allow application across EDs and will contribute to comparison and optimisation of emergency care for patients in ED with musculoskeletal injuries.

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Leveraged Funds

- $19,130.00 HP Grant

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Dissemination

Journal papers
- Strudwick, K., McPhee, M., Bell, A., Martin‐Khan, M. and Russell, T., Review article: Best practice management of low back pain in the emergency department (part 1 of the musculoskeletal injuries rapid review series), Emergency Medicine Australasia, 2018 Feb;30(1):18-35. doi: 10.1111/1742-6723.12907. [Epub 2017 Dec 12.]
- Strudwick, K., McPhee, M., Bell, A., Martin‐Khan, M. and Russell, T., Review article: Best practice management of common ankle and foot injuries in the emergency department (part 2 of the musculoskeletal injuries rapid review series), Emergency Medicine Australasia, 2018 Apr;30(2):152-180. doi: 10.1111/1742-6723.12904. [Epub 2017 Dec 13]
-Strudwick, K., McPhee, M., Bell, A., Martin‐Khan, M. and Russell, T., Review article: Best practice management of common knee injuries in the emergency department (part 3 of the musculoskeletal injuries rapid review series), Emergency Medicine Australasia, 2017 Dec 15; doi: 10.1111/1742-6723.12870. [Epub ahead of print]
- Strudwick, K., McPhee, M., Bell, A., Martin‐Khan, M. and Russell, T., Best practice management of common shoulder injuries and conditions in the emergency department (part 4 of the musculoskeletal injuries rapid review series), Emergency Medicine Australasia, 2018 Jan 18; doi: 10.1111/1742-6723.12921. [Epub ahead of print]

Conference Presentation/Abstract:
- CI Kirsten Strudwick presented a 15 minute oral presentation at the Australian Physiotherapy Association Conference, at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre in October 2015. The topic of the presentation was "Quality indicators for musculoskeletal injury management in the Emergency Department: a systematic review". The presentation included a few slides on the research project as a whole, and questions from the audience were largely focussed on the expert panel input and field-study.

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Video/Presentations

WATCH: New push to improve medical care across QLD for broken bones and muscle injury #TenNews pic.twitter.com/0ZccCBJXLt

— TEN News Queensland (@tennewsqld) September 28, 2016

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