This study will collect information from the records of 3000 children from 30 hospitals presenting after a head injury in 2016 and will interview staff to look at different factors influencing the care provided. APHIRST-Gap is expected to provide crucial information on scan rates and inform strategies, including national guideline development to standardise and improve the care of children with head injury across Australia and New Zealand.
Head injury is a common reason children present to Emergency Departments in Australia and New Zealand. While most are minor the important issue for emergency clinicians is to determine whether a particular child is at risk of a serious head injury such as a bleed on the brain. A computerised tomography(CT) scan is the investigation of choice to look for these injuries. Its presents risks though, including the risk of sedation, and radiation induced cancer.
Several “rules” have been designed to guide doctors in the decision, by weighing up the risk of injury with the risks associated with the scan. The published Australasian APHIRST study examined three of these rules. It found that all three rules performed well, clinicians made sound judgements, and the overall rate of CT scan use was low (10%). APHIRST was limited to 10 large metropolitan, and predominately paediatric hospitals. Most children in Australia are not seen in these hospitals. Further research is required to determine whether there is a large variation in scan use between different hospitals and how best to apply these findings to a broader range of hospitals.
This trial is being run by the PREDICT network and the Principal Investigator is Prof Franz Babl.
READ MOREWorkplace stress in the emergency department (ED) is an internationally recognised issue. It is important to understand how ED staff cope with the stressors within their working environment. The overall aim of this study was to describe and compare the impact of the working environment and varied coping strategies amongst medical and nursing staff working in Emergency Departments (ED) in Australia and Sweden.
READ MOREThe 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.
READ MOREThe aims of this research are to link best practice ED workforce models to available ED funding under an activity-based funding (ABF), while contributing to the development of an improved national activity and outcome-based ED funding model. This research will identify the current status of funding of EDs, identify and critically appraise models for funding of EDs and identify the workforce implications of those funding models and propose a State-wide ED clinical workforce framework.
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