Emergency centre triage category allocations and their associated patient flow timeframes in a private healthcare group in the Middle East.
Enrico Dippenaar
PMID 31660167WHAT IT FOUND
In private emergency centres, most triaged patients were assigned to low-acuity categories, yet patients still reached a physician quickly.
This describes existing flow, not proof that triage categories improve safety.
Key findings
01Most analysed patient records were assigned to triage categories 3 to 5, and category 4 was the largest single group.
02Patients reached a physician quickly overall, with median times from registration to triage under 10 minutes and registration to physician consult under 20 minutes.
03One centre, EC2, had markedly longer physician wait times than the other centres.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The analysis used only records that had all relevant data points, so patients with missing entries were excluded. Removing incomplete records may have removed some high-acuity cases. The four emergency centres were not using a single triage system, so timeframes could not be directly compared across systems. Many time points were entered by staff, so clock errors, late entries, or unsynchronised clocks could affect the reported times. A large portion of children's records was excluded because blood pressure entries were missing. The study was conducted in a private healthcare group with a low proportion of high-acuity cases, so it may not reflect public emergency centres with higher acuity loads. The study reports patient flow timeframes only and does not show that triage categories or shorter waits improved patient outcomes.
Declared interests
The study was conducted in emergency centres of Mediclinic Middle East, which highlighted triage as a vital component of their business model. The author declared no conflict of interest beyond support provided by the management of Mediclinic Middle East to undertake the study.