LOVE-DIVA

Peripheral intravenous catheters (PIVCs) are small plastic tubes placed in a patient’s vein for the delivery of intravenous fluid and medications. In the emergency department, many patients present with difficult intravenous access and require multiple insertion attempts to successfully place a PIVC. This can be time consuming for clinical staff, costly for hospitals, and painful for patients. Correct device selection is a key strategy to ensure first-time insertion success.

This study will recruit 406 adult participants at two emergency departments in order to test if novel PIVCs with a retractable guidewire (AccuCath Ace™ Intravascular Cannula, BD), compared to standard care, are effective at increasing first-time insertion success for patients with difficult vascular access.

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

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.

SWAMPED: Linking best practice workforce models to Emergency Department funding

The 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.

Propofol or Ketofol for Emergency Medicine Procedural Sedation- A Randomized Controlled Trial: The POKEM Study.

This project aims to determine if the drug combination called ketafol offers an improved safety profile while maintaining the same procedural success rates and patient satisfaction. This study will still treat any pain before the procedure starts or the sedative drugs are administered for the procedure itself. Patients who agree to take part will receive one or other of the alternatives in predetermined amounts. All patients receive full monitoring and standard sedation care.

The second aspect to this study relates to the way in which the data will be viewed and analyzed. This study will be using a special database with visual interfaces that allows analysis of the data and comparison to what is already known about patients who have had procedural sedation in other studies.