Pre-hospital Korean Triage and Acuity Scale: the development background and core contents

¹National Emergency Medical Center, National Medical Center, Seoul, Korea
²Department of Emergency Medicine, Chungnam National University College of Medicine, Daejeon, Korea
³Department of Emergency Medicine, Soonchunhyang University Seoul Hospital, Seoul, Korea
⁴Department of Emergency Medicine, Dankook University College of Medicine, Cheonan, Korea
⁵Department of Emergency Medicine, Yeouido St. Mary’s Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea

Correspondence

Han Joo Choi ,Tel: 041-550-6840, Fax: 041-550-7054, Email: iqtus@hanmail.net,

Received: October 4, 2023; Revised: October 17, 2023 Accepted: October 19, 2023. Published online: February 28, 2024.

ABSTRACT

The Korean Triage and Acuity Scale (KTAS) Committee under the Korean Society of Emergency Medicine developed a Korean pre-hospital emergency patient classification tool (Pre-hospital Korean Triage and Acuity Scale [Pre-KTAS]) under contract from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Korea. The classification tool was developed separately for adults and children. The patient’ s emergency level is classified into five distinct levels and is the same as the KTAS classification system, which is a hospital-level emergency patient classification tool.

Key words: Emergency medical services; Triage; Safety