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BackgroundBystander response, including cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), is critical to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) survival. Nearly 30% of Australian residents were born overseas, and little is known about their preparedness to perform CPR. In this mixed-methods study, we examined rates of training and willingness and barriers to performing CPR among immigrants in Australia.MethodsFirst, we surveyed residents in New South Wales, Australia, using purposeful sampling to enrich immigrant populations. Multivariate logistic regression was used to examine the association between place of birth and willingness to perform CPR. Next, we conducted focus-group discussions with members of the region’s largest migrant groups to explore barriers and relevant societal or cultural factors.ResultsOf the 1267 survey participants (average age 49.6 years, 52% female), 60% were born outside Australia, most in Asia and 73% had lived in Australia for more than 10 years. Higher rates of previous CPR training were reported among Australian-born participants compared with South Asian-born and East Asian-born (77%, 35%, 48%, respectively, p <0.001). In adjusted models, the odds of willingness to perform CPR on a stranger were significantly lower among migrants than Australian-born (adjusted OR: 0.64; 95% CI 0.49 to 0.83); however, this association was mediated by history of training. Themes emerging from the focus-group discussions included concerns about causing harm, fear of liability, and birthplace-specific social and cultural barriers.ConclusionsTargeted awareness and training interventions, which address common and culture-specific barriers to response and improved access to training, may improve confidence and willingness to respond to OHCA in multi-ethnic communities.

Rates of self-harm among children and young people (CYP) have been on the rise, presenting major public health concerns in Australia and worldwide. However, there is a scarcity of evidence relating to self-harm among CYP from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds. To analyse the relationship between self-harm-related mental health presentations of CYP to emergency departments and CALD status in South Western Sydney (SWS), Australia. We analysed electronic medical records of mental health-related emergency department presentations by CYP aged between 10 and up to 18 years in six public hospitals in the SWS region from January 2016 to March 2022. A multilevel logistic regression model was used on these data to assess the association between self-harm-related presentations and CALD status while adjusting for covariates and individual-level clustering. Self-harm accounted for 2457 (31.5%) of the 7789 mental health-related emergency department presentations by CYP; CYP from a CALD background accounted for only 8% ( = 198) of the self-harm-related presentations. CYP from the lowest two most socioeconomic disadvantaged areas made 63% ( = 1544) of the total self-harm-related presentations. Findings of the regression models showed that CYP from a CALD background (compared with those from non-CALD backgrounds) had 19% lower odds of self-harm (adjusted odds ratio 0.81, 95% CI 0.66-0.99). Findings of this study provide insights into the self-harm-related mental health presentations and other critical clinical features related to CYP from CALD backgrounds that could better inform health service planning and policy to manage self-harm presentations and mental health problems among CYP.

IntroductionOut-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is associated with poor survival outcomes, but prompt bystander action can more than double survival rates. Being trained, confident and willing-to-perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) are known predictors of bystander action. This study aims to assess the effectiveness of a community organisation targeted multicomponent education and training initiative on being willing to respond to OHCAs. The study employs a novel approach to reaching community members via social and cultural groups, and the intervention aims to address commonly cited barriers to training including lack of availability, time and costs.Methods and analysisFirstCPR is a cluster randomised trial that will be conducted across 200 community groups in urban and regional Australia. It will target community groups where CPR training is not usual. Community groups (clusters) will be stratified by region, size and organisation type, and then randomly assigned to either immediately receive the intervention programme, comprising digital and in-person education and training opportunities about CPR and OHCA over 12 months, or a delayed programme implementation. The primary outcome is self-reported ‘training and willingness-to-perform CPR’ at 12 months. It will be assessed through surveys of group members that consent in intervention versus control groups and administered prior to control groups receiving the intervention. The primary analysis will follow intention-to-treat principles, use log binomial regression accounting for baseline covariates and be conducted at the individual level, while accounting for clustering within communities. Focus groups and interviews will be conducted to examine barriers and enablers to implementation and costs will also be examined.Ethics and disseminationEthical approval was obtained from The University of Sydney. Findings from this study will be disseminated via presentations at scientific conferences, publications in peer-reviewed journals, scientific and lay reports.Trial registration numberACTRN12621000367842.

IntroductionOpioids and imaging are considered low-value care for most people with low back pain. Yet around one in three people presenting to the emergency department (ED) will receive imaging, and two in three will receive an opioid. NUDG-ED aims to determine the effectiveness of two different behavioural ‘nudge’ interventions on low-value care for ED patients with low back pain.Methods and analysisNUDG-ED is a 2×2 factorial, open-label, before-after, cluster randomised controlled trial. The trial includes 8 ED sites in Sydney, Australia. Participants will be ED clinicians who manage back pain, and patients who are 18 years or over presenting to ED with musculoskeletal back pain. EDs will be randomly assigned to receive (i) patient nudges, (ii) clinician nudges, (iii) both interventions or (iv) no nudge control. The primary outcome will be the proportion of encounters in ED for musculoskeletal back pain where a person received a non-indicated lumbar imaging test, an opioid at discharge or both. We will require 2416 encounters over a 9-month study period (3-month before period and 6-month after period) to detect an absolute difference of 10% in use of low-value care due to either nudge, with 80% power, alpha set at 0.05 and assuming an intra-class correlation coefficient of 0.10, and an intraperiod correlation of 0.09. Patient-reported outcome measures will be collected in a subsample of patients (n≥456) 1 week after their initial ED visit. To estimate effects, we will use a multilevel regression model, with a random effect for cluster and patient, a fixed effect indicating the group assignment of each cluster and a fixed effect of time.Ethics and disseminationThis study has ethical approval from Southwestern Sydney Local Health District Human Research Ethics Committee (2023/ETH00472). We will disseminate the results of this trial via media, presenting at conferences and scientific publications.Trial registration numberACTRN12623001000695.

Background and aimsVertigo is a common presentation to the emergency department (ED) with 5% of presentations due to posterior circulation stroke (PCS). Bedside investigations such as the head impulse test (HIT) are used to risk stratify patients, but interpretation is operator dependent. The video HIT (v-HIT) provides objective measurement of the vestibular-ocular-reflex (VOR) and may improve diagnostic accuracy in acute vestibular syndrome (AVS). We aimed to evaluate the use of v-HIT as an adjunct to clinical assessment to acutely differentiate vestibular neuritis (VN) from PCS.Methods133 patients with AVS were consecutively enrolled from the ED of our comprehensive stroke centre between 2018 and 2021. Patient assessment included a targeted vestibular history, HINTs examination (Head Impulse, Nystagmus and Test of Skew), v-HIT and MRI>48 hours after symptom onset. The HINTS/v-HIT findings were analysed and compared between VN, PCS and other cause AVS. Clinical course, v-HIT and MRI findings were used to determine diagnosis.ResultsFinal diagnosis was VN in 40%, PCS 15%, migraine 16% and other cause AVS 29%. PCS patients were older than VN patients (mean age 68.5±10.6 vs 60.1±14.2 years, p=0.14) and had more cardiovascular risk factors (3 vs 2, p=0.002). Mean VOR gain was reduced (<0.8) in ipsilateral horizontal and (<0.7) anterior canals in VN but was normal in PCS, migraine and other cause AVS. V-HIT combined with HINTs was 89% sensitive and 96% specific for a diagnosis of VN.ConclusionsV-HIT combined with HINTs is a reliable tool to exclude PCS in the ED.

Introduction: Emergency departments (ED) globally are addressing the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic with varying degrees of success. We leveraged the 17-country, Emergency Medicine Education & Research by Global Experts (EMERGE) network and non-EMERGE ED contacts to understand ED emergency preparedness and practices globally when combating the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: We electronically surveyed EMERGE and non-EMERGE EDs from April 3–June 1, 2020 on ED capacity, pandemic preparedness plans, triage methods, staffing, supplies, and communication practices. The survey was available in English, Mandarin Chinese, and Spanish to optimize participation. We analyzed survey responses using descriptive statistics. Results: 74/129 (57%) EDs from 28 countries in all six World Health Organization global regions responded. Most EDs were in Asia (49%), followed by North America (28%), and Europe (14%). Nearly all EDs (97%) developed and implemented protocols for screening, testing, and treating patients with suspected COVID-19 infections. Sixty percent responded that provider staffing/back-up plans were ineffective. Many sites (47/74, 64%) reported staff missing work due to possible illness with the highest provider proportion of COVID-19 exposures and infections among nurses. Conclusion: Despite having disaster plans in place, ED pandemic preparedness and response continue to be a challenge. Global emergency research networks are vital for generating and disseminating large-scale event data, which is particularly important during a pandemic.

Background:Hospitals are insufficiently resourced to appropriately support young people who present with suicidal crises. Digital mental health innovations have the potential to provide cost-effective models of care to address this service gap and improve care experiences for young people. However, little is currently known about whether digital innovations are feasible to integrate into complex hospital settings or how they should be introduced for sustainability.Objective:This qualitative study explored the potential benefits, barriers, and collective action required for integrating digital therapeutics for the management of suicidal distress in youth into routine hospital practice. Addressing these knowledge gaps is a critical first step in designing digital innovations and implementation strategies that enable uptake and integration.Methods:We conducted a series of semistructured interviews with young people who had presented to an Australian hospital for a suicide crisis in the previous 12 months and hospital staff who interacted with these young people. Participants were recruited from the community nationally via social media advertisements on the web. Interviews were conducted individually, and participants were reimbursed for their time. Using the Normalization Process Theory framework, we developed an interview guide to clarify the processes and conditions that influence whether and how an innovation becomes part of routine practice in complex health systems.Results:Analysis of 29 interviews (n=17, 59% young people and n=12, 41% hospital staff) yielded 4 themes that were mapped onto 3 Normalization Process Theory constructs related to coherence building, cognitive participation, and collective action. Overall, digital innovations were seen as a beneficial complement to but not a substitute for in-person clinical services. The timing of delivery was important, with the agreement that digital therapeutics could be provided to patients while they were waiting to be assessed or shortly before discharge. Staff training to increase digital literacy was considered key to implementation, but there were mixed views on the level of staff assistance needed to support young people in engaging with digital innovations. Improving access to technological devices and internet connectivity, increasing staff motivation to facilitate the use of the digital therapeutic, and allowing patients autonomy over the use of the digital therapeutic were identified as other factors critical to integration.Conclusions:Integrating digital innovations into current models of patient care for young people presenting to hospital in acute suicide crises is challenging because of several existing resource, logistical, and technical barriers. Scoping the appropriateness of new innovations with relevant key stakeholders as early as possible in the development process should be prioritized as the best opportunity to preemptively identify and address barriers to implementation.

ObjectivesPresentations to ED are growing, worsening pressure on the health system. A discrete choice experiment (DCE) was undertaken to determine the factors that influence why patients choose the ED over primary care for low-acuity presentations.MethodsA DCE was carried out at two tertiary hospital EDs between October 2022 and February 2023 in adult patients with lower triage scores. Attributes included waiting time, cost, facility, care type and provider. Participant preferences were estimated using mixed multinomial logit (MMNL) and latent class models. Willingness to pay and policy simulations were also carried out.Results281 participants were recruited. The MMNL model revealed that patients preferred care with 30 min waiting times (β=0.75, 95% CI 0.59 to 0.91), no out-of-pocket payments (β=1.18, 95% CI 0.97 to 1.39), in-person delivery (β=0.62, 95% CI 0.51 to 0.73) and the availability of on-site investigations (β=0.83, 95% CI 0.68 to 0.98). A latent class analysis revealed three distinct cohorts of patients: those who would choose the ED regardless of other options (26% of the sample), those swayed largely by cost (29%) and those who would go elsewhere if another option was offered (45%).ConclusionThe study showed patient preferences for various health service options and the strength of those preferences. A latent class analysis showed distinct subgroups within this cohort, each likely to respond differently to various policy scenarios and health service options. There was heterogeneity within the responses, which should be a target for policy. This information could be used to design services that more adequately meet patient preferences.

Background This study assessed the accuracy of three International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes methods derived from Global Burden of Disease (GBD) sepsis study (modified GBD method) in identifying sepsis, compared to the Angus method. Sources of errors in these methods were also reported. Methods Prospective multicentre, observational, study. Emergency Department patients aged ≥ 16 years with high sepsis risk from nine hospitals in NSW, Australia were screened for clinical sepsis using Sepsis 3 criteria and coded as having sepsis or not using the modified GBD and Angus methods. The three modified GBD methods were: Explicit —sepsis-specific ICD code recorded; Implicit —sepsis-specific code or infection as primary ICD code plus organ dysfunction code; Implicit plus —as for Implicit but infection as primary or secondary ICD code. Agreement between clinical sepsis and ICD coding methods was assessed using Cronbach alpha (α). For false positive cases (ICD-coded sepsis but not clinically diagnosed), the ICD codes leading to those errors were documented. For false negatives (clinically diagnosed sepsis but ICD-coded), uncoded sources of infection and organ dysfunction were documented. Results Of 6869 screened patients, 450 (median age 72.4 years, 48.9% females) met inclusion criteria. Clinical sepsis was diagnosed in 215/450 (47.8%). The explicit, implicit, implicit plus and Angus methods identified sepsis in 108/450 (24.0%), 175/450 (38.9%), 222/450 (49.3%) and 170/450 (37.8%), respectively. Sensitivity was 41.4%, 58.1%, 67.4% and 55.8%, and specificity 91.9%, 78.7%, 67.2% and 79.1%, respectively. Agreement between clinical sepsis and all ICD coding methods was low (α = 0.52–0.56). False positives were 19, 50, and 77, while false negatives were 126, 90, and 70 for the explicit, implicit, and implicit plus methods, respectively. For false positive cases, unspecified urinary tract infection, hypotension and acute kidney failure were commonly assigned infection and organ dysfunction codes. About half (44.3%-55.6%) of the false negative cases didn’t have a pathogen documented. Conclusion The modified GBD method demonstrated low accuracy in identifying sepsis; with the implicit plus method being the most accurate. Errors in identifying sepsis using ICD codes arise mostly from coding for unspecified urinary infections and associated organ dysfunction. Trial registration The study was registered at the ANZCTR (ACTRN12621000333819) on 24 March 2021.

BackgroundInformation communicated by ambulance paramedics to Emergency Department (ED) staff during handover of patients has been found to be inconsistent and incomplete, and yet has major implications for patients' subsequent hospital treatment and trajectory of care.AimThe study's aims were to: (1) identify the existing structure of paramedic-to-emergency staff handovers by video recording and analysing them; (2) involve practitioners in reflecting on practice using the footage; (3) combine those reflections with formal analyses of these filmed handovers to design a handover protocol; (4) trial-run the protocol; and (5) assess the protocol's enactment.MethodThe study was a ‘video-reflexive ethnography’ involving: structured analysis of videoed handovers (informed by ED clinicians' and ambulance paramedics' comments); ED clinicians and ambulance paramedics viewing their own practices; and rapid at-work training and feedback for paramedics. A five-question pre- and post-survey measured ED triage nurses' perceptions of the new protocol's impact. In total, 137 pre- and post-handovers were filmed involving 291 staff, and 368 staff were educated in the use of the new protocol.ResultsThere was agreement that Identification of the patient, Mechanism/medical complaint, Injuries/information relative to the complaint, Signs, vitals and GCS, Treatment and trends/response to treatment, Allergies, Medications, Background history and Other (social) information (IMIST-AMBO) was the preferred protocol for non-trauma and trauma handovers. Uptake of IMIST-AMBO showed improvements: a greater volume of information per handover that was more consistently ordered; fewer questions from ED staff; a reduction in handover duration; and fewer repetitions by both paramedics and ED clinicians that may suggest improved recipient comprehension and retention.ConclusionIMIST-AMBO shows promise for improving the ambulance-ED handover communication interface. Involving paramedics and ED clinicians in its development enhanced the resulting protocol, strengthened ED clinicians' and ambulance paramedics' sense of ownership over the protocol and bolstered their peers' willingness to adopt it.