[Current trends in emergency triage in Taiwan: the five-level triage system]

An ideal triage system should accurately and quickly sort patients according to seriousness of diseases, and ensure that patients in emergency departments (EDs) get adequate management in an appropriate medical environment. Recently, EDs throughout the world have been confronting overcrowding, and are developing a five-level triage system to solve the problems that this presents. Taiwan EDs have used the Taiwan triage system (TTS) since 1999 until recently. In order to follow the trend of the times, EDs in Taiwan adjusted the four-level TTS to a five-level system, and built a computer system which is reliable and effective. This article reviews the literature about emergency triage systems, and describes the differences between the four-level and five-level systems, exploring the reliability, effectiveness, and outcomes of triage systems. Taiwan nurses might treat this article as a basis for reflection on the importance of the five-level triage system.