Role of the Korean Triage and Acuity Scale to predict resource utilization in pediatric emergency center

¹Department of Emergency Medicine, Soonchunhyang University Cheonan Hospital, Cheonan
²Department of Emergency Medicine, Konkuk University Chungju Hospital, Chungju, Korea

Correspondence

Dong Wook Lee ,Tel: 041-570-2119, Fax: 041-592-3806, Email: yisfm83@gmail.com,

Received: May 13, 2020; Revised: July 15, 2020 Accepted: September 25, 2020. Published online: August 31, 2021.

ABSTRACT

Objective:
Triage in the emergency department is important as mistriage leads to inefficient use of resources. The Korean Triage and Acuity Scale (KTAS) was developed in 2012 and has been implemented in emergency departments nationwide since January 2016. The purpose of this study was to determine whether KTAS can predict resource use in a pediatric emergency center.
Method:
From October to December 2019, a retrospective analysis was conducted by a review of medical records. Demographic data, KTAS grades, Emergency Severity Index (ESI) as an indicator of resource utilization and details of the use of each resource were collected. Patients were divided into non-trauma and trauma groups. KTAS grades 1 and 2 were defined as the severe group, grade 3 was the moderate group, and grades 4 and 5 were defined as the mild group. We investigated whether triage using KTAS is related to resource utilization.
Results:
In the non-trauma group, ESI, length of stay in the emergency department, and hospitalization were significantly correlated with the KTAS groups. In the trauma group, there was no significant difference between the moderate and mild groups in the above variables except for hospitalization. This was because there was no significant difference in sedation, procedure, and intravenous injection, in the trauma group.
Conclusion:
The KTAS triage helped predict resource utilization in the non-trauma group, but not in the trauma group especially between the moderate and mild groups. Additional research will be needed to predict resource utilization in children with trauma.

Key words: Emergency; Triage; Pediatrics