| Summary: | 碩士 === 長庚大學 === 醫務管理學系 === 102 === The aims of emergency triage are to sort out patients with life endangered conditions and to provide immediate care. Taiwan has introduced a five acuity triage system, TTAS (Taiwan Triage and Acuity Scale), in 2010 to replace the conventional four acuity triage system. The new system has classified patients into 5 levels, the acuity level 1 and 2 were the most urgent patients who require immediate cares to resuscitate their lives. Because of the rapid increasing number of patients, the reliability of triage system became more important than ever in emergency care.
This study is a retrospective data cohort analysis using claim database from department of emergency medicine. The research period was from Apr. 1, 2010 to Dec. 31, 2013. The characteristics of over-triage patients were analyzed by comparing cases and controls based on their basic information and vital signs.
The main findings of the study are as follows:
(1)Approximately, 4.16% of acuity level 1 and 2 emergency patients were over-triaged during the study period.
(2)The characteristics of over-triage patients were admitted in night shift, with shortness of breath, with abdominal pain, or head injury as the chief complaint.
(3)After adjustment of over-triage misclassifications, hospitalization were increased from 85.69% to 84.48%, medical consumptions were increased from NTD 40,449 to NTD 42,715 among the most urgent emergency patients.
Over-triage among urgent emergency patients was found and has seriously impacted our limited emergency resources. A new modification of the current triage system is proposed to improve the reliability of TTAS in which patient safety and system efficiency will be anticipated in the future.
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