Management

The Triage page has been updated with the latest available ED data from 2022-23.

The Quality improvement page has had a number of minor updates.

The Financial issues page has been updated with more recent information about healthcare expenditure in Australia and New Zealand.

The Clinical practice guidelines page has been updated with additional information about the substantial financial involvement with industry of many medical association leaders in the USA.

The Rosters and shift work page has been updated to include a number of evidence based tips on reducing the negative impact of night shifts.

The Time limited ED targets page has been updated with additional information about the negative aspects of successful ‘4 hour rule’ implementation on ED staff.

The Financial issues page has been updated with new information about the relative ED LOS in Australia for patients of different ages. No surprises to anyone who has been in an ED as to which age group stays the longest.

The Time limited ED care targets page has been updated, including the addition of a small segment on patient types and target achievement, the (mostly hidden) negative effects of ‘clock stopping’ techniques widely employed in Australian EDs and reasons why time based targets may reduce overall productivity.

The Clinical practice guidelines page has been updated with additional information about how often clinical decision rules in Emergency Medicine are compared with non-standardised practice, and how they fare when they are compared – and the news is not encouraging for guideline writers. Schriger, DL, Elder, JW, Cooper, RJ. Structured Clinical Decision Aids Are Seldom … Read more

The Emergency Department design page has had a number of revisions and additions.

The Financial issues page has been updated with information about the cost drivers for increased expenditure in the US health system.

The Emergency Department overcrowding page has been updated with the most recent AIHW data regarding hospital bed numbers per head of population for Australia, New Zealand and some other comparators.

The Emergency Department overcrowding page has been extensively revised with particular emphasis on hospital and ED patient flow.

Some definitions have been added to the Quality improvement page.

Some additional information about casemix weighting for EDs and the national efficient price has been added to the Financial issues page.

Some additional information about budgets has been added to the Financial issues page.

Some additional information about casemix funding of Emergency Departments in Australia has been added to the Financial issues page.

The Triage page has been updated with information about the different average waiting times according to hospital type in Australia.

The Time limited ED care targets page has been revised and additional information about the association between improved NEAT admission performance and hospital mortality has been added. Sullivan, C, Staib, A, Khanna, S, et al. The National Emergency Access Target (NEAT) and the 4-hour rule: time to review the target. Med J Aust 2016;204(9):354.

The acronyms relating to ED occupancy have been added to the Emergency Department overcrowding page. Sullivan, C, Staib, A, Eley, R, et al. National Emergency Access Targets metrics of the emergency department–inpatient interface: measures of patient flow and mortality for emergency admissions to hospital. Australian Health Review 2015;39(5):533-38.