Public Awareness of Triage System in Emergency and Trauma Department: A Literature Review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31436/ijcs.v7i1.355Keywords:
Public awareness, Emergency Department, Knowledge, Triage systemAbstract
A triage system is being implemented in the Emergency Department (ED) to help categorise the patients according to their acuity. However, there are limited studies discussing patients’ knowledge and understanding of the triage system. This review aimed to identify prior studies that discussed the patients’ knowledge and understanding of the triage system and to discover patients’ expectations of priority when they came to the ED and the reasons for attending the department. The articles were searched through several databases (IIUM Discovery Service, Science Direct, and PubMed) to obtain sources using the Boolean phrase 'AND', filtered down to English full-text articles with open access, and published between 2010 and 2020. A total of 16 studies were included in this review. Among all the studies, only one was conducted in the Southeast Asia region, Singapore. Most of the studies reported findings on reasons for visiting the ED for non-urgent attendance, and four of the studies discussed the patients’ awareness of the triage system. The patients need more information to improve their understanding of the triage system. The literature highlighted that most of the patients expected higher priority when they came to the ED. The main reason for their visit to the ED was because of the convenience offered by the ED in terms of operating hours and the availability of all facilities in one place. More studies about patient’s awareness and knowledge of the triage system need to be conducted to provide a clear insight into what they know about the triage system.
References
Durand AC, Palazzolo S, Tanti-Hardouin N, Gerbeaux P, Sambuc R & Gentile S. Nonurgent patients in emergency departments: Rational or irresponsible consumers? Perceptions of professionals and patients. BMC Research Notes, 2012;5. https://doi.org/10.1186/1756-0500-5-525
FitzGerald G, Jelinek GA, Scott D & Gerdtz MF. Emergency department triage revisited. Emergency Medicine Journal, 2010;27(2), 86–92. https://doi.org/10.1136/emj.2009.077081
Peta D, Day A, Lugari WS, Gorman V, Ahayalimudin N & Pajo VMT. Triage: A Global Perspective. Journal of Emergency Nursing, 2023;49(6), 814-825.
Lusa L. & Bukovšek D. Providing patients visiting emergency departments with useful information using public real time data: A case study based on Italian data. J Eval Clin Pract. 2019 Jun;25(3):404-411. doi: 10.1111/jep.13059. Epub 2018 Nov 8.
Tam HL, Chung SF & Lou CK. A review of triage accuracy and future direction. BMC Emerg Med. 2018; 18: 58. doi: 10.1186/s12873-018-0215-0.
Özhanl? Y & Akyolcu N (2020). Satisfaction of Patients with Triage and Nursing Practice in Emergency Departments. Florence Nightingale J Nurs, 2020; 28(1):49–60. doi: 10.5152/FNJN.2020.18041
Toloo GS, Aitken P, Crilly J & FitzGerald G. Agreement between triage category and patient’s perception of priority in emergency departments. Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine, 2016;24(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13049-016-0316-2
Adeniji AA & Mash B. Patients’ perceptions of the triage system in a primary healthcare facility, Cape Town, South Africa. African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine, 2016a;8(1), e1–e9. https://doi.org/10.4102/phcfm.v8i1.1148
Alhabdan N, Alhusain F, Alharbi, A, Alsadhan, M., Hakami M & Masuadi E. Exploring emergency department visits: factors influencing individuals’ decisions, knowledge of triage systems and waiting times, and experiences during visits to a tertiary hospital in Saudi Arabia. International Journal of Emergency Medicine, 2019;12(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12245-019-0254-7
Ruud SE, Hjortdahl P & Natvig B. Is it a matter of urgency? A survey of assessments by walk-in patients and doctors of the urgency level of their encounters at a general emergency outpatient clinic in Oslo, Norway. BMC Emergency Medicine, 2016;16(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12873-016-0086-1
Alyasin AMM & Douglas C. Reasons for Non-urgent Presentations to The Emergency Department in Saudi Arabia. International Emergency Nursing, 2014;22(4), 220–225.
Seibert T, Veazey K, Leccese P & Druck J. What do patients want? Survey of patient desires for education in an urban university hospital. Western Journal of Emergency Medicine, 2014;15(7), 764–769. https://doi.org/10.5811/westjem.2014.9.20674.
Unwin M, Kinsman L & Rigby S. Why are we waiting? Patients’ perspectives for accessing emergency department services with non-urgent complaints. International Emergency Nursing, 2016;29, 3–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ienj.2016.09.003.
Alhussain Z, Alghamdi M, Ahmed R, Aldhban A, Alghamdi A & Alalyani N. Awareness of the Saudi population about the role of the Emergency Rooms. International Journal of Medicine in Developing Countries, 2019; 8(9), 89–95. https://doi.org/10.24911/ijmdc.51-1568717752.
Kubicek K, Liu D, Beaudin C, Supan J, Weiss G, Lu Y & Kipke MD. A profile of Non-urgent Emergency Department Usage in an Urban Pediatric Hospital. Pediatric Emergency Care, 2012;28(10), 977–984. https://doi.org/10.1097/PEC.0b013e31826c9aab
Rocovich C & Patel T. Emergency department visits: Why adults choose the emergency room over a primary care physician visit during regular office hours? World Journal of Emergency Medicine, 2012;3(2), 91. https://doi.org/10.5847/wjem.j.issn.1920-8642.2012.02.002
Jiang L, Ye L, Dai M, Zhou J & Li Q. Use Andersen’s behavior model to explain non-urgent visits in emergency department: A single center study in southwest China. International Emergency Nursing, 2020;(January), 100845. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ienj.2020.100845.
Becker J, Dell A, Jenkins, L & Sayed R. Reasons why patients with primary health care problems access a secondary hospital emergency centre. South African Medical Journal, 2012;102(10), 800–801. https://doi.org/10.7196/SAMJ.6059
de Oliveira JLC, Gatti AP, Barreto M da S, Bellucci JA Jr, Góes HL de F, Matsuda LM. User Embracement With Risk Classification: Perceptions of the Service Users of an Emergency Care Unit. Texto & Contexto - Enfermagem, 2017;26(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1590/0104-07072017000960014
Kua PHJ, Wu L, Ong ELT, Lim ZY, Yiew JL, Thia XHM & Sung SC. Understanding decisions leading to nonurgent visits to the paediatric emergency department: Caregivers’ perspectives. Singapore Medical Journal, 2016;57(6), 314–319. https://doi.org/10.11622/smedj.2016023
Bahadori M, Mousavi SM, Teymourzadeh E & Ravangard R. Emergency department visits for non-urgent conditions in Iran: A cross-sectional study. BMJ Open, 2019;9(10). https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-030927
