[Triage criteria in a emergency department]

Accurate patient triage for the early identification of potentially seriously ill or high-risk children is needed due to the increasing demands made on paediatric emergency departments.

A set of triage criteria for patient selection was established. Between October 1998 and April 1999 we selected 20 days with maximum patient flow in our emergency department (average 225 children/day). Patients who satisfied the triage criteria were selected. The following variables were studied: age, sex, triage criteria, waiting time, visit time and final diagnosis.

Five hundred and thirteen patients satisfied our triage criteria (11% of patients admitted to the emergency department). Median age was 3.4 years. The most frequent complaints (criteria) were dyspnea (36.4%), referral to the emergency department by another physician (29%), fever and rash (11.7%) and age under 1 month (5.8%). The most common causes of patient referral to hospital were acute abdominal pain and fever (31% each). Waiting and visit times were 29 and 55 minutes, respectively.

Definition of selection criteria seems effective and equivalent to other triage systems and allows optimization of human resources.