SCGHED Newsletter 111

Newsletter 109: Password protected for SCGHED

Lots of Congrats to dish out to

Steph Falconer  – who won the ‘star of the month’ award.

  • Jason Scop – who got the highest score in Australia in his Ultrasound DDU exams
  • 4 of our Registrars who passed their primary written exams recently
    • Hannah Raffel
    • Sam Leonard
    • Paul Shoemack
    • Sam Kho

Redevelopment

  • Our Redevelopment project is gathering pace.
  • The latest iteration of the designs is on the flight deck on the noticeboard beside the batphone.
  • Have a look and feel free to add any suggestions
  • We’re hoping to finalise it in the next couple of weeks so make sure you’ve had your say
  • Note – Our new ward will be called The Toxicology ward (not the Behavioural assessment unit) and we (and Anne O’Sullivan) are adamant it won’t be a mental health holding bay.
  • Yes, Fast track is moving again! But hopefully with easier access to radiology.
  • Yes the waiting room is smaller but it’s a better shape.  Our current WR holds 65 people, this can hold up to 100 (Yikes!). Even with the 2mrule it can hold 70.
  • Almost all obs ward bays will be ‘visual’
  • Dedicated PITSTOP area.
  • Separate SJA entrance and ‘Behaviours of concern’ room for agitated patients to be (*coughs*) ‘made calmer’.
  • Please don’t deface the plans as they’re my only large copy at the moment.
NIV Form
  • Katie Wilson has helped develop a new NIV prescription form which is miles better than our old one.
  • We’ll be trialling it from Friday so feedback welcome
 IV Access
  • Did you know that IV cannulae placed in the antecubital fossa (ACF) are much more likely to get infected?
  • We have a recurrent problem of patients getting Staph aureus bloodstream infections from IV cannulae placed in ED.
  • Please try and avoid the ACF if you can.
  • In fact – please try and avoid the ‘just in case’ cannula.
  • Studies have shown at least 50% of IVC placed in ED’s never get used for anything.
  • So a good rule of thumb is to only place one if you’re 80% sure it’s going to get used – otherwise just do a venous stab.
Outpatient Referrals
  • I had an interesting chat to our hospital GP liaison recently.
  • GP’s often get left out of the loop if ED makes outpatient referrals for patients.
  • GP’s actually WANT you to send patients back to them to get the outpatient referral made.
  • So we should mostly stop referring patients to outpatients – really the only exceptions should be when someone is getting followed up in the next week or 2 – so mostly Ortho and plastics.
  • Almost everything else should just be sent back to their GPs with a half decent discharge letter.
Ortho ereferrals
  • On the topic of ereferrals – ortho are about to update their ereferral page to something similar to the attached photo from FSH with a proforma that will hopefully speed things up for you.
FRAC Clinic
  • Just another shout out for the FRAC clinic which may allow you to avoid admission in some of our older frail patients – details attached
  • CCT2Home is another awesome service that provides rapid OT assessment and help to patients you may be a bit concerned about in their own homes – posters in the obs ward on how to refer to them.
  • GAT – the Geriatrics Assessment Team trial has now stopped. We hope it will return in a permanent fashion in the not too distant future.
RAVE Course
  • The highly rated Airway course  for registrars is on again in December – get in quick before it sells out (if it hasn’t already); Application details attached.
Syphilis Outbreak
  • Just in case you didn’t hate 2020 enough, Perth is now experiencing a Syphilis outbreak with a tripling of the number of cases over the last 5 years.
  • This is particularly in vulnerable patient groups such as:
    • People who are homeless
    • Young people
    • People who inject drugs
    • Culturally and linguistically diverse people
  • All WA specific STI guidelines are found in the superb SILVER BOOK with a refresher on Syphilis available.
  • But really, just get in the habit of using the silver book every time you see a patient with potential PID or epididymitis

SCGH ED Newsletter

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Dr Peter Allely
Dr Peter Allely
Articles: 4

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