Emergency Department triage: what data are nurses collecting?

Emergency nurse triage in the hospital information management system: A quality improvement study

BACKGROUND

Assessment of nurse triage decision accuracy and triage times is currently carried out through paper-based methods. This quality improvement study aims to develop a method that can assess the accuracy and duration of nurse triage decisions based on a computerized system and to share an example of the application of this method.

METHODS

This is a descriptive quality improvement study. The study was carried out in two stages between March and May 2019. The functionality of the developed method was examined using 3835 patients' triage data, which were obtained between June 1 and 14, 2019.

RESULTS

With this study, the determination of the accuracy and duration of nurse triage decisions was accomplished with a computerized process based on real patient outputs, and the accuracy and duration of these decisions were continuously measured, monitored, and assessed, which is different from paper-based methods. The functionality of the method was evaluated with data from 3835 real patients. The triage decision accuracy rate was 64.4%, and the average duration of triage was 81.3s. Positive feedback on the method was received from all triage nurses.

CONCLUSION

The study result outputs can be integrated into quality processes and can be used internationally as performance assessment criteria and quality indicators for triage nursing.

State Laws and Regulations Addressing Nurse-Initiated Protocols and Use of Nurse-Initiated Protocols in Emergency Departments: A Cross-Sectional Survey Study

INTRODUCTION

State regulations may impede the use of nurse-initiated protocols to begin life-saving treatments when patients arrive to the emergency department. In crowding and small-scale disaster events, this could translate to life and death practice differences. Nevertheless, research demonstrates nurses do utilize nurse-initiated protocols despite legal prohibitions. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship of the state regulatory environment as expressed in nurse practice acts and interpretive statements prohibiting the use of nurse-initiated protocols with hospital use of nurse-initiated protocols in emergency departments.

METHODS

A cross-sectional approach was used with a nationwide survey. The independent variable categorized the location of the hospital in states that have a protocol prohibition. Outcomes included protocols for blood laboratory tests, X-rays, over-the-counter medication, and electrocardiograms. A second analysis was completed with New York State alone because this state has the strongest language prohibiting nurse-initiated protocols.

RESULTS

A total of 350 participants returned surveys from 48 states and the District of Columbia. A hospital was more likely to have policies supporting nurse-initiated protocols if they were not in a state with the scope of practice prohibitions. Four categories emerged such as advantages, approval, prohibition, and conditions under which the protocols can be used. Prohibitive language was associated with less protocol use for emergency care.

CONCLUSION

State scope of practice inconsistencies create misalignment with emergency nurse education and training, which may impede timely care and contribute to inequalities and inefficiencies in emergency care. In addition, prohibitive language places practicing nurses responding to emergencies in crowded work environments at risk.

Decreasing triage time: effects of implementing a step-wise ESI algorithm in an EHR

Objectives

To determine if adapting a widely-used triage scale into a computerized algorithm in an electronic health record (EHR) shortens emergency department (ED) triage time.

Design

Before-and-after quasi-experimental study.

Setting

Urban, tertiary care hospital ED.

Participants

Consecutive adult patient visits between July 2011 and June 2013.

Intervention

A step-wise algorithm, based on the Emergency Severity Index (ESI-5) was programmed into the triage module of a commercial EHR.

Main Outcome Measures

Duration of triage (triage interval) for all patients and change in percentage of high acuity patients (ESI 1 and 2) completing triage within 15 min, 12 months before-and-after implementation of the algorithm. Multivariable analysis adjusted for confounders; interrupted time series demonstrated effects over time. Secondary outcomes examined quality metrics and patient flow.

Results

About 32 546 patient visits before and 33 032 after the intervention were included. Post-intervention patients were slightly older, census was higher and admission rate slightly increased. Median triage interval was 5.92 min (interquartile ranges, IQR 4.2-8.73) before and 2.8 min (IQR 1.88-4.23) after the intervention (P < 0.001). Adjusted mean triage interval decreased 3.4 min (95% CI: -3.6, -3.2). The proportion of high acuity patients completing triage within 15 min increased from 63.9% (95% CI 62.5, 65.2%) to 75.0% (95% CI 73.8, 76.1). Monthly time series demonstrated immediate and sustained improvement following the intervention. Return visits within 72 h and door-to-balloon time were unchanged. Total length of stay was similar.

Conclusion

The computerized triage scale improved speed of triage, allowing more high acuity patients to be seen within recommended timeframes, without notable impact on quality.

Outcome-Based Validity and Reliability Assessment of Raters Regarding the Admission Triage Level in the Emergency Department: a Cross-Sectional Study

INTRODUCTION

Emergency department (ED) is usually the first line of healthcare supply to patients in non-urgent to critical situations and, if necessary, provides hospital admission. A dynamic system to evaluate patients and allocate priorities is necessary. Such a structure that facilitates patients' flow in the ED is termed triage.

OBJECTIVE

This study was conducted to investigate the validity and reliability of implementation of Emergency Severity Index (ESI) system version 4 by triage nurses in an overcrowded referral hospital with more than 80000 patient admissions per year and an average emergency department occupancy rate of more than 80%.

METHOD

This prospective cross-sectional study was conducted in a tertiary care teaching hospital and trauma center with an emergency medicine residency program. Seven participating expert nurses were asked to assess the ESI level of patients in 30 written scenarios twice within a three-week interval to evaluate the inter-rater and intra-rater reliability. Patients were randomly selected to participate in the study, and the triage level assigned by the nurses was compared with that by the emergency physicians. Finally, based on the patients' charts, an expert panel evaluated the validity of the triage level.

RESULTS

During the study period, 527 patients with mean age of 54 ± 7 years, including 253 (48%) women and 274 (52%) men, were assessed by seven trained triage nurses. The degree of retrograde agreement between the collaborated expert panel's evaluation and the actual triage scales by the nurses and physicians for all 5 levels was excellent, with the Cohen's weighted kappa being 0.966 (CI 0.985-0.946, p < 0.001) and 0.813 (CI 0.856-0.769, p<0.001), respectively. The intra-rater reliability was 0.94 (p < 0.0001), and the inter-rater reliability for all the nurses was in perfect agreement with the test result (Cohen's weighted kappa were as follows: 0.919, 0.956, 0.911, 0.955, 0.860, 0.956, and 0.868; p < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

The study findings showed that there was perfect reliability and, overall, almost perfect validity for the triage performed by the studied nurses.

Factors that influence care priority for chest pain patients using the manchester triage system

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

To analyse crucial factors for determining care priority for patients with acute myocardial infarction based on the Manchester Triage System.

BACKGROUND

Triage is the first potentially critical step in the care of myocardial infarction patients. However, there are still very few studies on the factors interfering in the lack of care priority for these patients, impacting their treatment and prognosis.

DESIGN

Retrospective cohort study with 217 patients in the emergency department of a Brazilian hospital.

METHODS

Data were collected from patients' records with a primary diagnosis of myocardial infarction, from March 2014-February 2015. Patients were divided into two groups for statistical analysis: high priority (immediate and very urgent) and low priority (urgent, standard and nonurgent).

RESULTS

Most of the patients were male, with a mean age of 62.1 years, with a prevalence of high blood pressure and smoking as risk factors. Lower care priority level was assigned to 116 (53.4%) patients. Sixty-four (29.5%) patients had ST-segment elevation acute myocardial infarction, and 29 (45.3%) of these patients were assigned lower care priority level. Coughing, abdominal pain, onset of symptoms over 24 hr ago and pain of mild to moderate intensity were clinical predictors associated with lower care priority level. Sweating and high blood pressure were associated with high care priority level. Lower care priority level was associated with increased door-to-electrocardiogram and door-to-troponin times. There was no significant difference between the two groups for door-to-needle and door-to-balloon times.

CONCLUSIONS

Most of the patients with myocardial infarction were classified as low care priority, showing triage failure either due to symptom variability or need for professional qualification in clinical data collection and interpretation.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE

The results may support clinical evaluation, bringing chest pain assessment into focus.

Using the Five-Level Taiwan Triage and Acuity Scale Computerized System: Factors in Decision Making by Emergency Department Triage Nurses

Triage classifies and prioritizes patients' care based on the acuity of the illness in emergency departments (EDs). In Taiwan, the five-level Taiwan Triage and Acuity Scale (TTAS) computerized system was implemented nationally in 2010. The purpose of this study was to understand which factors affect decision-making practices of triage nurses in the light of the implementation of the new TTAS tool and computerized system. The qualitative data were collected by in-depth interviews. Data saturation was reached with 16 participants. Content analysis was used. The results demonstrated that the factors affecting nurses' decision making in the light of the newly implemented computerized system sit within three main categories: external environmental, patients' health status, and nurses' experiences. This study suggests ensuring the patient's privacy while attending the triage desk, improving the critical thinking of triage nurses, and strengthening the public's understanding of the ED visits. These will make ED triage more efficient.

How vital are the vital signs? A multi-center observational study from emergency departments of Pakistan

BACKGROUND

Vital signs play a critical role in prioritizing patients in emergency departments (EDs), and are the foundation of most triage methods and disposition decisions. This study was conducted to determine the frequency of vital signs documentation anytime during emergency department treatment and to explore if abnormal vital signs were associated with the likelihood of admission for a set of common presenting complaints.

METHODS

Data were collected over a four-month period from the EDs of seven urban tertiary care hospitals in Pakistan. The variables included age, sex, hospital type (government run vs. private), presenting complaint, ED vital signs, and final disposition. Patients who were >12 years of age were included in the analysis. The data were analyzed to describe the proportion of patients with documented vitals signs, which was then crossed-tabulated with top the ten presenting complaints to identify high-acuity patients and correlation with their admission status.

RESULTS

A total of 274,436 patients were captured in the Pakistan National Emergency Department Surveillance (Pak-NEDS), out of which 259,288 patients were included in our study. Vital signs information was available for 90,569 (34.9%) patients and the most commonly recorded vitals sign was pulse (25.7%). Important information such as level of consciousness was missing in the majority of patients with head injuries. Based on available information, only 13.3% with chest pain, 12.8% with fever and 12.8% patients with diarrhea could be classified as high-acuity. In addition, hospital admission rates were two- to four-times higher among patients with abnormal vital signs, compared with those with normal vital signs.

CONCLUSION

Most patients seen in the EDs in Pakistan did not have any documented vital signs during their visit. Where available, the presence of abnormal vital signs were associated with higher chances of admission to the hospital for the most common presenting symptoms.

Dynamic patient grouping and prioritization: a new approach to emergency department flow improvement

The demand on emergency departments (ED) is variable and ever increasing, often leaving them overcrowded. Many hospitals are utilizing triage algorithms to rapidly sort and classify patients based on the severity of their injury or illness, however, most current triage methods are prone to over- or under-triage. In this paper, the group technology (GT) concept is applied to the triage process to develop a dynamic grouping and prioritization (DGP) algorithm. This algorithm identifies most appropriate patient groups and prioritizes them according to patient- and system-related information. Discrete event simulation (DES) has been implemented to investigate the impact of the DGP algorithm on the performance measures of the ED system. The impact was studied in comparison with the currently used triage algorithm, i.e., emergency severity index (ESI). The DGP algorithm outperforms the ESI algorithm by shortening patients' average length of stay (LOS), average time to bed (TTB), time in emergency room, and lowering the percentage of tardy patients and their associated risk in the system.