This Evidence Check review examined adolescents and young adults’ (AYAs) presentations to Emergency Departments. AYAs present primarily for musculoskeletal disorders, mental and behavioural disorders, and genitourinary, respiratory and infectious diseases and these differ proportionally among males and females. A number of ED presentations are avoidable. Factors influencing the use of EDs include a lack of...

Overview In some hospitals, far too many people get a treatment they should not get, even when the evidence is clear that it is unnecessary or doesn’t work. Australia urgently needs a system to identify these outlier hospitals and make sure they are not putting patients at risk. To show how such a system could...

Determines the incidence of abbreviation use in electronic hospital discharge letters (eDLs) and general practitioner understanding of abbreviations used in eDLs. Abstract Objectives: To determine the incidence of abbreviation use in electronic hospital discharge letters (eDLs) and general practitioner understanding of abbreviations used in eDLs. Design, setting and participants: Retrospective audit of abbreviation use in...

Overview: Australia’s hospitals 2013–14 at a glance provides information on Australia’s public and private hospitals. In 2013–14, there were 9.7 million hospitalisations, including 2.5 million involving surgery. Public hospitals provided care for 7.2 presentations to emergency departments, with 74% of patients seen within recommended times for their triage category and about 73% were completed within...

In 2013–14, about 46 million occasions of service were provided for non-admitted patients by 558 public hospitals. Summary Non-admitted patient care includes emergency occasions of service for non-admitted patients, outpatient care (including specialist clinics) and other non-admitted patient care (such as the dispensing of medication, provision of diagnostic procedures, district nursing and community health services)...