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Emergency department triage revisited.
Gerard FitzGerald1, George A Jelinek, Deborah Scott
1School of Public Health, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. gj.fitzgerald@qut.edu.au
Emergency Medicine Journal : EMJ
|February 17, 2010
Summary
Emergency department triage systems aim for patient justice and departmental organization. A review suggests developing an International Triage Scale (ITS) to address inconsistencies and enable global benchmarking.
Area of Science:
- Emergency Medicine
- Healthcare Management
- Clinical Assessment
Background:
- Triage is crucial for emergency department (ED) management, ensuring clinical justice and operational efficiency.
- Standardization efforts over 20 years have faced challenges due to ED crowding, increased demand, and international system variance.
- Inconsistent triage assessment persists despite education, guidelines, and algorithms.
Purpose of the Study:
- To critically review the literature on emergency department triage.
- To identify areas of inconsistency and inform future research directions.
- To propose the development of an International Triage Scale (ITS) for global application.
Main Methods:
- Critical literature review of emergency department triage systems.
- Analysis of factors contributing to triage variation.
- Examination of international variance in triage systems.
Main Results:
- Existing triage systems show significant inconsistency in patient urgency assessment.
- International variance in triage systems hinders effective benchmarking.
- Education, guidelines, and algorithms have partially reduced, but not eliminated, triage variation.
Conclusions:
- An International Triage Scale (ITS) is needed to address current triage inconsistencies.
- An international collaborative approach is essential for developing and validating the ITS.
- The ITS will facilitate international benchmarking and advance triage research programs.
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