Validity of the South African Triage Scale in a rural district hospital

The implementation of a triage system is a vital step in improving the functioning and patient flow of the emergency centre in a rural district hospital. The South African Triage Scale (SATS) is a well validated and reliable tool used widely in South Africa and other low- and middle-income countries. This study aims to assess the validity of the SATS in a rural district hospital context.

This is a cross-sectional study. All patients presenting to the Zithulele Hospital emergency centre from 1 October 2015 to 31 December 2015 were triaged using the SATS system, routinely collected data was used to determine the correlation between assigned acuity and outcome to determine rates of under- and over-triage. Patient demographics were collected and waiting times were compared to existing standards of the SATS tool.

Of the 4002 patients presenting to the emergency centre during the study period, 2% were triaged as emergency patients, 15% as very urgent, 38% as urgent and 45% as routine. The assigned acuities correlate well with outcome (f = 0.37; p < 0.0001) and an acceptable rate of over-triage (49%) and under-triage (9%) was found. Waiting time targets were poorly achieved with only 49% of emergency, 23% very urgent, 46% urgent and 69% routine patients seen within ideal target times.

The SATS is a valid tool to implement in a rural district emergency centre. Strict waiting time goals may not be achievable in this setting without structural and resource allocation changes to allow for improvements in the surge capacity of staff to manage urgent and emergency patients.