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Table 5 Patients assessed with full triage or limited triage

From: Patient characteristics, triage utilisation, level of care, and outcomes in an unselected adult patient population seen by the emergency medical services: a prospective observational study

 

Full triage

Limited triage

P

n = 5150

n = 1502

Age – years (25th, 75th percentile)

 Median

69 (45,83)

57 (34,76)

<0.001

Sex – n (%)

 Female

2758 (53.6)

767 (51.1)

0.089

Dispatcher priority – n (%) (16,17)a

  

<0.001

 Priority 1

2436 (47.4)

813 (54.7)

 

 Priority 2

2485 (48.4)

586 (39.5)

 

 Priority 3

213 (4.1)

86 (5.8)

 

Dispatch medical indexb – n (%) (19,12)a

 Chest pain/cardiac disease

834 (16.3)

157 (10.5)

<0.001

 Extremity/wound/minor trauma

612 (12.9)

192 (11.9)

0.322

 Uncertain information/suspicion of severe illness

570 (11.1)

156 (10.5)

0.510

 Respiratory difficulties

602 (11.7)

106 (7.1)

<0.001

 Abdominal/urinary tract symptoms

624 (12.2)

80 (5.4)

<0.001

Medical historyc – n (%)

 Diseases of the circulatory system I00-I99

5135 (30.0)

1002 (23.1)

<0.001

 Mental and behavioural disorders F00-F99

2616 (15.3)

1195 (27.5)

<0.001

 Endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases E00-E89

1558 (9.1)

348 (8.0)

0.024

 Diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue M00-M99

1190 (7.0)

259 (6.0)

0.020

 Diseases of the digestive system K00-K95

1046 (6.1)

179 (4.1)

<0.001

 No medical history

634 (12.3)

270 (18.0)

<0.001

Time of day – n (%)

  

0.037

 08:00–16:00

2294 (44.5)

612 (40.7)

 

 16:00–24:00

1848 (35.9)

590 (39.3)

 

 24:00–08:00

1008 (19.6)

300 (20.0)

 

Time on scene – mins (25th, 75th percentile)

 Median

23 (16,31)

21 (13,30)

<0.001

Prehospital triage level – n (%) (0, 551)a

  

0.655

 Red

489 (9.5)

115 (12.1)

 

 Orange

1609 (31.2)

299 (31.4)

 

 Yellow

2244 (43.6)

351 (36.9)

 

 Green

808 (15.7)

186 (19.6)

 

Prehospital field assessment according to RETTS-Ad – n (%) (0,538)a

 Chest/thoracic pain

537 (10.4)

86 (8.9)

0.164

 Abdominal/flank pain

548 (10.6)

46 (4.8)

<0.001

 Respiratory distress/dyspnoa/breathing difficulties

504 (9.8)

41 (4.3)

<0.001

 Unspecific condition

423 (8.2)

68 (7.1)

0.245

 Injury head trauma

266 (5.2)

86 (8.9)

<0.001

Under the influence of substances (alcohol, drugs) – n (%)

423 (8.2)

246 (16.4)

<0.001

Prehospital medication – n (%)

 Any medication

1581 (30.7)

330 (22.0)

<0.001

 Intravenous medication

852 (16.5)

181 (12.1)

< 0.001

Level of care – n (%)

   

 Hospital

4394 (85.3)

946 (63.0)

<0.001

  Emergency department

4072 (92.7)

848 (89.6)

0.002

  Bypass emergency departmente

322 (7.3)

99 (10.4)

 

 Referral to primary care

93 (1.8)

50 (3.3)

0.001

 Stay on scene with increased social/home care

61 (1.2)

39 (2.6)

<0.001

 Stay on scene with advice on self-care/medication

602 (11.7)

467 (31.1)

<0.001

  ED admission within 72 h

76 (10.1)

50 (9.0)

0.570

Mode of transport to hospital – n (%)

  

0.001

 Ambulance

4120 (93.8)

859 (90.8)

 

 By own transportation

32 (0.7)

9 (1.0)

 

 Patient transport

117 (2.7)

24 (2.5)

 

 Seated transport

121 (2.8)

38 (4.0)

 

 Police

16 (1.7)

4 (0.1)

 

Management ED – n (%) (3,11)a

 Admitted to in-patient care

2208 (50.4)

423 (44.6)

0.002

 Extended examination/interventionf

593 (13.5)

181 (19.2)

<0.001

 Lab, drug administration, prescription

1203 (27.4)

209 (22.2)

0.001

 Clinical examination/observation only

187 (4.3)

88 (9.3)

<0.001

  Patient managed by ED nurse, referral to primary care

43 (1.0)

11 (1.2)

0.591

  Patient leaves without being seen or against medical advice

149 (3.4)

31 (3.3)

0.921

Days of in-patient care – n

 Mean (SD)

8.0 (8.8)

8.8 (12.6)

0.097

 Median (25th,75th percentile)

5 (3,11)

5 (2,11)

0.112

Final hospital assessment, ICD-107 – n (%) (83,261)a

 Symptoms, signs and abnormal clinical and laboratory findings R00-R99

857 (20.7)

114 (13.2)

< 0.001

 Injury, poisoning and certain other consequences of external causes S00-S99, T00-T98

693 (16.8)

235 (27.3)

< 0.001

 Mental and behavioural disorders F00-F99

266 (6.4)

157 (18.2)

<0.001

 Diseases of the circulatory system I00-I99

530 (12.8)

105 (12.2)

0.653

 Diseases of the respiratory system J00-J99

383 (9.3)

35 (4.1)

<0.001

Time-critical diagnosis (83,261)a

416 (10.1)

135 (15.6)

< 0.001

Deranged clinical signs/ occurrence of complications within 48 hh

418 (9.5)

119 (12.6)

0.006

All-cause mortality – n (%)

 ≤ 7 days

89 (1.7)

57 (3.8)

< 0.001

 ≤ 30 days

217 (4.2)

74 (4.9)

0.234

 ≤ 365 days

741 (14.4)

175 (11.7)

0.006

  1. aMissing in each group respectively
  2. bThe five most common dispatch medical indices
  3. cThe five most common medical history ICD-10 chapters, a patient can have more than one diagnosis
  4. dThe five most common EMS field assessments
  5. eypass including pathway stroke, hip fracture, cardiac ICU, cath-lab, admission by EMS directly to geriatric ward, infection ward and psychiatric ED
  6. fX-ray, computed tomography, ultrasound, magnetic resonance, lumbar puncture, suturing, proctoscopy
  7. gThe five most common final hospital ICD-10 chapters
  8. hOccurrence of life-threatening events in ambulance, ED or ward within 48 h