The effectiveness of a modified Manchester Triage System for geriatric patients: A retrospective quantitative study.
Baiyu Li, Zhufeng Zhang, Keye Li and 1 others
PMID 39231303WHAT IT FOUND
mMTS low-priority codes were reassuring: 99.9% of low-priority patients did not die within 7 days and 99.2% did not need emergency surgery within 72 hours, but many high-priority patients did not have either outcome.
Key findings
01In 17,764 geriatric emergency patients, 1,896 (10.7%) were high priority and 15,868 (89.3%) were low priority.
02For emergency surgery within 72 hours, 62.6% of patients who needed surgery were high priority and 99.2% of low-priority patients did not need surgery; for death within 7 days, 99.9% of low-priority patients did not die.
03Many high-priority patients did not have the outcomes: 1,695 of 1,896 did not need emergency surgery within 72 hours, and 1,800 of 1,896 did not die within 7 days.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study was single-centre, so its triage performance may not transfer to other hospitals or populations. It was retrospective and only included records with complete information, excluding self-discharge and transferred patients, which can introduce selection bias. It only studied patients aged 65 years or older, so results do not describe younger ED patients. Triage performance was judged by two outcomes only, emergency surgery within 72 hours and death within 7 days, not by expert triage reassessment or ICU admission. The study did not assess reliability of triage accuracy.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read a high-priority mMTS code as proof that a geriatric patient will need emergency surgery within 72 hours or die within 7 days. The study found many high-priority patients did not have either outcome.