Can scoring systems be used for the triage of COVID-19 patients?

Whether to send COVID-19 patients home with quarantine measures or to hospitalize and treat them on an inpatient basis is a very important decision in the treatment of COVID-19 patients. This study aimed to introduce a scoring system that will enable making decisions on inpatient or outpatient treatment of patients by scoring their symptoms, clinical, radiological, and laboratory results during the initial assessment.

Data of patients over 18 years of age, examined for COVID-19 between March 11, 2020, and May 31, 2020, and who had a positive PCR result, and their radiological (computed tomography reports) and blood test (complete blood count, blood gas and laboratory results) results were recorded to develop our scoring system.

A comparison of COVID-19 patients, who received outpatient and inpatient treatments by age variable, revealed a significant result (P < 0.001). The comparison of laboratory results showed a significant difference between both groups (P < 0.001). The comparison of the groups by the presence of comorbidity also revealed a significant result (P < 0.001). According to the scoring system that we developed (Cebeci score), a score of 5 points and above had a specificity of 81% and a sensitivity of 88% for indicating the probability of receiving inpatient treatment.

We believe that the scoring system we developed will be a simple, practical, and leading guide for physicians to avoid dilemmas regarding the issue of whether to quarantine patients at home or to hospitalize them in order to use medical resources effectively.