J Korean Acad Fam Med.  2008 May;29(5):354-359.

Triage of Non-urgent Ambulatory Patients by Family Medicine Resident in Emergency Room

• Seo ES
• Choi WJ
• Cho SH
• Kim CW

Abstract

BACKGROUND: This study was performed to evaluate the validity of triage of non-urgent ambulatory patients using Triage Tool, the Emergency Severity Index-4 by a family medicine resident in the emergency room (ER).
METHODS
A total of 790 ambulatory patients who visited an urban ER between March and April 2007 were enrolled. A family medicine (FM) resident and emergency medicine (EM) residents independently evaluated the severity of patients with ESI-4, and reviewed the basic characteristics and disposition of the patients. Concurrent validity and predictive validity were measured using weighted kappa analysis and chi-square analysis.
RESULTS
Concurrent validity was good. The weighted kappa value was 0.910 between an FM resident and EM residents. The hospitalization rate was 75% in catergory 2 and 19.6%, 2.5%, 0.05% in category 3 through 5, respectively. More severe category patients of ESI-4 had higher rate of hospitalization rate.
CONCLUSION
Triage by a family medicine resident, using the Emergency Severity Index-4 in ambulatory patients of emergency room (ER) is a useful screening tool for non-urgent patients.

Keyword

triage; non-urgent; ambulation

MeSH Terms

Emergencies
Emergency Medicine
Hospitalization
Humans
Mass Screening
Triage
Walking