SECONDARY EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT TRIAGE (SUPERTRIAGE) AND TRAUMA TEAM ACTIVATION - EFFECTS ON RESOURCE UTILIZATION AND PATIENT-CARE

Background: Not all field triage patients need full trauma team activa tion, Secondary emergency department (ED) triage (supertriage), a clin ical and anatomic screen, determines trauma team versus ED management, The purpose was to study the effects of supertriage on injury severit y and disposition by patients managed with and without team activation . Methods: Observational study of consecutive patients transported for alert consideration undergoing supertriage by a trauma nurse, Chart r eview was performed for disposition and Injury Severity Score, Conting ency table or t test with p less than or equal to 0.05 was used for da ta analysis. Results: One hundred ninety patients were screened; 74% o f the 54 with positive supertriage and team activation needed the oper ating room in 24 hours or the intensive care unit versus 46% of cases with negative supertriage managed in the ED and admitted (p = 0.015), Of the 35 admitted ED patients, 10 required the operating room and 6 r equired the intensive care unit, Conclusions: Supertriage identified a majority requiring team activation; however, resources must be availa ble for the seriously injured not meeting field or hospital triage cri teria.