Improvement in the accuracy of references in the journal Emergency Medicine Australasia.

Objective: To study any change in reference accuracy in the Australasian emergency medicine journal (now known as Emergency Medicine Australasia), in the 10 years since a previous analysis was undertaken.

Method: A sample of 100 randomly selected references was compared with the results from the previous analysis.

Results: There was a significant reduction in the number of citations with errors and in the total number of errors.

Emergency medicine and futile care: Taking the road less travelled.

Debate around medical futility has produced a vast literature that continues to grow. Largely absent from the broader literature is the role of emergency medicine in either starting measures that prove to be futile, withholding treatment or starting the end of life communication process with patients and families. In this discussion we review the status of the futility debate in general, identify some of the perceived barriers in managing futile care in the ED including the ethical and legal issues, and establish the contribution of emergency medicine in this important debate.

Does the presence of an emergency physician improve access based quality indicators in a rural emergency department?

Objective: To assess the effect that the presence of an emergency physician in the ED has on the access indicators of the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards.

Methods: A retrospective study was carried out in a 265 bed regional referral hospital in Victoria. The performance of the ED over a 6 month period, during which time there was incomplete emergency physician coverage, was monitored using The Australian Council on Healthcare Standards (ACHS) access indicators as the benchmark.

A comparison of the antemortem clinical diagnosis and autopsy findings for patients who die in the emergency department.

Objectives: In spite of advances in medical technology, there remains a high discrepancy rate between the antemortem clinical diagnosis and postmortem examination diagnosis for patients who die in hospitals. The aim of this study was to compare the clinical and postmortem examination diagnoses of patients who died in the emergency department (ED) of a tertiary hospital, and to analyze any discrepancy between them.

Methods: The study was a retrospective chart review of patients who died in the ED of a tertiary referral teaching hospital and a comparison of the antemortem diagnosis with the autopsy diagnosis.

A review of the accuracy of references in the journal Emergency Medicine.

Objective: To assess the accuracy of references in articles published in Emergency Medicine, and to categorize these errors.

Methods: All the references in Volume 12 of Emergency Medicine were listed and numbered consecutively. A sample of 100 references was then selected.