Reliability and Validity of a New Computer-Based Triage Decision Support Tool: ANKUTRIAGE

Abstract

Objective: Triage is a tool used to determine patients’ severity of illness or injury within minutes of arrival. This study aims to assess the reliability and validity of a new computer-based triage decision support tool, ANKUTRIAGE, prospectively. Methods: ANKUTRIAGE, a 5-level triage tool was established considering 2 major factors, patient’s vital signs and characteristics of the admission complaint. Adult patients admitted to the ED between July and October, 2019 were consecutively and independently double triaged by 2 assessors using ANKUTRIAGE system. To measure inter-rater reliability, quadratic-weighted kappa coefficients (Kw) were calculated. For the validity, associations among urgency levels, resource use, and clinical outcomes were evaluated. Results: The inter-rater reliability between users of ANKUTRIAGE was excellent with an agreement coefficient (Kw) greater than 0.8 in all compared groups. In the validity phase, hospitalization rate, intensive care unit admission and mortality rate decreased from level 1 to 5. Likewise, according to the urgency levels, resource use decreased significantly as the triage level decreased (P < 0.05). Conclusions: ANKUTRIAGE proved to be a valid and reliable tool in the emergency department. The results showed that displaying the key discriminator for each complaint to assist decision leads to a high inter-rater agreement with good correlation between urgency levels and clinical outcomes, as well as between urgency levels and resource consumptions.

Development and validation of PolyScan, an information technology triage tool for older adults with polypharmacy: a healthcare informatics study

“…[18][19][20][21] IT triage tools have been successfully used to prioritise healthcare resources for individuals with the greatest need. 22,23 However, currently, no studies of IT triage tools for individuals with polypharmacy and PIM prescribing have been identified. This study describes the development of what is thought to be a novel tool.…”