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Small rural emergency services still manage acutely unwell patients: A cross‐sectional study
Author(s) -
Baker Tim,
Dawson Samantha L
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
emergency medicine australasia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.602
H-Index - 52
eISSN - 1742-6723
pISSN - 1742-6731
DOI - 10.1111/1742-6723.12229
Subject(s) - medicine , emergency department , emergency medical services , medical emergency , cross sectional study , presentation (obstetrics) , emergency medicine , emergency medical care , nursing , surgery , pathology
Abstract Objective Examine the range of clinical situations encountered at small rural emergency care services. We hypothesised that over a 12 month period, small rural emergency services would encounter almost the entire range of clinical situations described at designated EDs. Methods We undertook a cross‐sectional prospective study observing five small rural emergency care services in S outh W est V ictoria. Patients were included if they presented between 1 F ebruary 2011 and 31 J anuary 2012, and their type of visit was recorded as an emergency presentation. Main outcome measures are reports that describe clinical activity using the V ictorian Emergency Minimum Dataset data collected at the five facilities. Results There were 14 318 emergency presentations to the five emergency care services over 1 year. Almost 6% of patients (5.94%, 851/14 318, 95% CI 5.6–6.3%) were in the two most urgent categories. With a wide spectrum of problems presented, the level 1 facility saw 18 of the possible 27 diagnostic categories, and the level 2 and 3 facilities both saw 25 out of 27 diagnostic categories. There were 26 586 procedures recorded. Of the 62 possible medical procedures, only seven were not performed at least once. Critical care procedures were performed in levels 2 and 3 facilities. Conclusion The five small rural emergency facilities encountered most of the clinical problems seen in full EDs. They saw almost all categories of emergency presentation, saw almost all diagnostic categories, treated critically ill and injured patients, and performed most procedures.