Adaptive process triage system cannot identify patients with gastrointestinal perforation

TY - JOUR

T1 - Adaptive process triage system cannot identify patients with gastrointestinal perforation

AU - Bohm, Aske Mathias

AU - Tolstrup, Mai-Britt

AU - Gögenur, Ismail

N1 - Articles published in the DMJ are “open access”. This means that the articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial License, which permits any non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.

PY - 2017/7

Y1 - 2017/7

N2 - INTRODUCTION: Adaptive process triage (ADAPT) is a triage tool developed to assess the severity and address the priority of emergency patients. In 2009-2011, ADAPT was the most frequently used triage system in Denmark. Until now, no Danish triage system has been evaluated based on a selective group of patients in need of acute abdominal surgery. Gastrointestinal perforation (GIP) is acknowledged as one of the surgical conditions with the highest mortality rates. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether ADAPT can identify patients with GIP.METHODS: All abdominal emergency laparoscopies and laparotomies performed over a one-year period at Herlev Hospital, Denmark, were included. Patient data and triage levels were collected from medical records. We defined patients suspected of less severe surgical illness as green-yellow and patients suspected of severe/life-threatening illness as orange-red.RESULTS: A total of 803 patients with a known triage level were identified: 47% green, 38% yellow, 13% orange and 2% red. Of these patients, 136 were identified with a GIP. The negative predictive value was 83.2% (95% confidence interval: 80.1-85.7), meaning that one out of six abdominal surgery patients triaged as green or yellow had a GIP that was not identified by the triage system.CONCLUSION: ADAPT is incapable of identifying one of the most critically ill patient groups in need of emergency abdominal surgery.FUNDING: none.TRIAL REGISTRATION: HEH-2013-034 I-Suite: 02336.

AB - INTRODUCTION: Adaptive process triage (ADAPT) is a triage tool developed to assess the severity and address the priority of emergency patients. In 2009-2011, ADAPT was the most frequently used triage system in Denmark. Until now, no Danish triage system has been evaluated based on a selective group of patients in need of acute abdominal surgery. Gastrointestinal perforation (GIP) is acknowledged as one of the surgical conditions with the highest mortality rates. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether ADAPT can identify patients with GIP.METHODS: All abdominal emergency laparoscopies and laparotomies performed over a one-year period at Herlev Hospital, Denmark, were included. Patient data and triage levels were collected from medical records. We defined patients suspected of less severe surgical illness as green-yellow and patients suspected of severe/life-threatening illness as orange-red.RESULTS: A total of 803 patients with a known triage level were identified: 47% green, 38% yellow, 13% orange and 2% red. Of these patients, 136 were identified with a GIP. The negative predictive value was 83.2% (95% confidence interval: 80.1-85.7), meaning that one out of six abdominal surgery patients triaged as green or yellow had a GIP that was not identified by the triage system.CONCLUSION: ADAPT is incapable of identifying one of the most critically ill patient groups in need of emergency abdominal surgery.FUNDING: none.TRIAL REGISTRATION: HEH-2013-034 I-Suite: 02336.

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 28673376

SN - 1603-9629

VL - 64

JO - Danish Medical Journal

JF - Danish Medical Journal

IS - 7

M1 - A5374

ER -