Ambulance use is associated with higher self-rated illness seriousness: user attitudes and perceptions.

Objectives: The objective was to study the role and effect of patients' perceptions on reasons for using ambulance services in Queensland, Australia.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted of patients (n = 911) presenting via ambulance or self-transport at eight public hospital emergency departments (EDs). The survey included perceived illness severity, attitudes toward ambulance, and reasons for using ambulance.

The feasibility of civilian prehospital trauma teams carrying and administering packed red blood cells.

Objective: To evaluate the feasibility, limitations and costs involved in providing prehospital trauma teams with packed red blood cells (pRBCs) for use in the prehospital setting.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study, examining 18 months of historical data collated by the Queensland Ambulance Service Trauma Response Team (TRT) and the Pathology Queensland Central Transfusion Laboratory was undertaken.

Results: Over an 18-month period (1 January 2011-30 June 2012), of 500 pRBC units provided to the TRT, 130 (26%) were administered to patients in the prehospital environment.

Planning volunteer responses to low-volume mass gatherings: do event characteristics predict patient workload?

Introduction: Workforce planning for first aid and medical coverage of mass gatherings is hampered by limited research. In particular, the characteristics and likely presentation patterns of low-volume mass gatherings of between several hundred to several thousand people are poorly described in the existing literature.

Objectives: This study was conducted to: 1.

Coding external causes of injuries: problems and solutions.

Complete and accurate information about hospitalised injuries is essential for injury risk and outcome research, though the accuracy and reliability of hospital data for injury surveillance are often questioned. To ascertain clinical coders' views of the reasons for a lack of specificity in external cause code usage and ways to improve external cause coding, a nationwide survey of coders was conducted in Australia in 2006. Four hundred and two coders participated in the questionnaire.

The quality of cause-of-injury data: where hospital records fall down.

Objectives: This research identifies the level of specificity of cause-of-injury morbidity data in Australia. The research explores reasons for poor-quality data across different causes-of-injury areas, including a lack of clinical documentation and insufficient detail in the classification system.

Methods: The 2002/03 hospital morbidity dataset of 593,079 injury-related hospital admissions was analysed to examine the specificity of coded external cause-of-injury data.

Knowledge of the national emergency telephone number and prevalence and characteristics of those trained in CPR in Queensland: baseline information for targeted training interventions.

Members of the community contribute to survival from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest by contacting emergency medical services and performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) prior to the arrival of an ambulance. In Australia there is a paucity of information of the extent that community members know the emergency telephone number and are trained in CPR. A survey of Queensland adults (n=4490) was conducted to ascertain current knowledge and training levels and to target CPR training.