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 2m2 rule 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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