The Consistency of Severity Assessment of Emergency Patients Between the Emergency Dispatch Center and the ESI MOPH ED Triage System at Maharat Nakhon Ratchasima Hospital
Keywords:
Consistency of Emergency Patient Severity Levels, Emergency Dispatch Center, ESI MOPH ED Triage System, Maharaj HospitalAbstract
Introduction
A significant number of patients currently seek services at the emergency room of Maharaj Hospital. Improving the triage system for assessing the severity of emergency cases, is essential to reducing losses associated with emergency conditions.
Objectives
This study aimed to evaluate the consistency between the severity level assessments of emergency patients conducted by the emergency dispatch center and those performed using the ESI MOPH ED Triage criteria at Maharaj Nakorn Ratchasima Hospital.
Method
This descriptive retrospective study analyzed patient data from the Emergency Medical Information System (ITEMS). The study included data from 2,872 emergency cases reported via the emergency dispatch center and subsequently treated at Maharaj Nakorn Ratchasima Hospital. Statistical methods used included frequency, percentage, Weighted Cohen’s Kappa statistics, and a 95% confidence interval
Results
The consistency of severity level assessments between the emergency dispatch center and the ESI MOPH ED Triage system showed that 78.38% of cases were consistent with the criteria, 6.69% were below the criteria (Under Triage), and 14.94% were above the criteria (Over Triage). Regarding the Response Code (RC) compared to the ESI MOPH ED Triage system, 82.45% of cases were consistent with the criteria, 4.56% were below the criteria, and 12.99% were above the criteria. Furthermore, the accuracy of the Incident Dispatch Code (IDC) compared to the RC indicated that 90.70% were accurate, while 4.67% were below the criteria and 4.63% were above the criteria.
Conclusion
The triage consistency between IDC and ESI, which use different criteria, is relatively high. The consistency between RC and the ESI system is even higher due to the involvement of real-time team evaluations during operations. Additionally, the consistency of patient triage assessments based on IDC and RC at Maharaj Hospital is exceptionally high.
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