Triage: does it matter?

Claeys Katrien, Said Hachimi Idrissi

Objective: Giving the sensitivity of brain tissue to ischemic or hemorrhagic suffering, a patient with a  cerebrovascular accident (CVA) needs to be treated as a medical urgency in the emergency room (ER). To treat the patient accordingly to his medical urgency a triage system is of great importance.

Methods: A monocentric, retrospective study with a pretest-posttest design has been completed to examine the influence of the Manchester Triage System (MTS) on the trajectory of patients with a CVA. Different (time)variables have been compared. The nature of the research was to determine if the implementation of the MTS had a positive impact on the trajectory of a patient with a CVA. SPSS Statistics 21 is used for the execution of the analytical tests.

Results: The results of the research shows that patients that were singed in to the ER, on who the MTS was used, got faster medical attention by a nurse (p < 0,001). Though with little or no influence on the patient trajectory. The influence on the outcome of the trajectory of a patient with a CVA on the other hand was marginal. The estimated probability for a better outcome was increased by 2% after the implementation of the MTS (p = 0.775).

Conclusion: The implementation of the MTS is insufficient to provide a more accurate and faster care. More efficient and targeted interventions are necessary on the trajectory of a patient with a CVA.