Emergency department triage and COVID‐19: Performance of the Interagency Integrated Triage Tool during a pandemic surge in Papua New Guinea. (27th June 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Mitchell, Rob; Kingston, Carl; Tefatu, Rayleen; Bornstein, Sarah; Kendino, Mangu; Sengiromo, Duncan; Pole, Jasper; Kuk, Sylvia; Josaiah, Betty; Elton, Leigh; Banks, Colin; Körver, Sarah; Cameron, Peter; O'Reilly, Gerard
• Is Part Of: Emergency medicine Australasia. Volume 34:Number 5(2022)
• Page Start: 822
• Page End: 824
• Publication Date: 2022-06-27
• Subjects: COVID‐19 -- emergency care -- Papua New Guinea -- triage; Emergency medicine -- Periodicals; Emergency medicine -- Australasia -- Periodicals; 616.025
• DOI: 10.1111/1742-6723.13980
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1742-6731

Abstract

Abstract: Objective: To determine the sensitivity of the Interagency Integrated Triage Tool to identify severe and critical illness among adult patients with COVID‐19. Methods: A retrospective observational study conducted at Port Moresby General Hospital ED during a three‐month Delta surge. Results: Among 387 eligible patients with COVID‐19, 63 were diagnosed with severe or critical illness. Forty‐seven were allocated a high acuity triage category, equating to a sensitivity of 74.6% (95% CI 62.1–84.7) and a negative predictive value of 92.7% (95% CI 88.4–95.8). Conclusion: In a resource‐constrained context, the tool demonstrated reasonable sensitivity to detect severe and critical COVID‐19, comparable with its reported performance for other urgent conditions.