NSW Health - Nursing and Midwifery Innovation Scholarship: Assessing the impact of an early warning system for bushfire smoke on emergency department presentations among people with health risk factors

Start year: 2024

Summary: This project aims to explore whether procative communication of mititgation strategies on days where bushfire smoke is forecast can reduce emergency department presentations among people with high risk factors, particularly those with respiratory and cardiac medical conditions. This proposed initiative, which aligns with the strategic objective of NSLHD to integrate safety systems and processes that identify and mitigate clinical risks (Northern Sydney Local Health District, 2022), will use early intervention to prevent exacerbation of illness due to a predictable event and thus reduce the demand for hospitalisation for populations at greatest risk. Bushfire smoke exposure is associated with increased emergency department presentations for asthma, hospitalisations for cardiovascular and respiratory disease (Borchers Arriagada et al., 2020), as well as an increase in all-cause death for people over 65 in the 3 days following exposure (Jegasothy et al., 2023). High-risk patients with pre-existing co-morbidities and people over 65 account for a significant proportion of service demand. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2023) highlighted that in 2022 and 2023, 52% of patients aged 65 and over who presented to emergency department were admitted to hospital. Undoubtedly, proactive management of population health via early interventions has great potential to significantly reduce the health burden on both individuals and the healthcare system, particularly among high-risk patients.