| Literature DB >> 28923021 |
Sara Kenyon1, Alistair Hewison2, Sophie-Anna Dann3, Jolene Easterbrook4, Catherine Hamilton-Giachritsis5, April Beckmann6, Nina Johns7.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: No standardised system of triage exists in Maternity Care and local audit identified this to be problematic. We designed, implemented and evaluated an Obstetric Triage System in a large UK maternity unit. This includes a standard clinical triage assessment by a midwife, within 15 min of attendance, leading to assignment to a category of clinical urgency (on a 4-category scale). This guides timing of subsequent standardised immediate care for the eight most common reasons for attendance. A training programme was integral to the introduction.Entities:
Keywords: Obstetric triage system, standardised assessment, priority 6 words
Mesh:
Year: 2017 PMID: 28923021 PMCID: PMC5604363 DOI: 10.1186/s12884-017-1503-5
Source DB: PubMed Journal: BMC Pregnancy Childbirth ISSN: 1471-2393 Impact factor: 3.007
Fig. 1Example of clinical discriminators and level of urgency assigned for Antenatal bleeding
Primary measure – Proportion of women assessed within 15 min of attendancea
| 2012 | 2013 | Relative risk | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seen within 15 min | 159/421 | 38% | 209/391 | 53% | 1.4 (1.2,1.7); p = <0.0001 |
| Time of first assessment not available | 75b | 105c | |||
aFor women who attended in 2012 this was the time from arrival to midwifery assessment and for women who attended in 2013 this was the time of arrival to time of initial triage. Women categorised as ‘Red’ were taken straight to Delivery Suite and not seen in Triage
bThe time was not recorded for 75 women in 2012 (8 were not assessed in Triage, the time of assessment was not recorded for 57 women, and 10 sets of notes were not available)
cThe time was not recorded for 105 women in 2013 (31 were not assessed in triage, the time of assessment was not recorded for 66 women, and 8 sets of notes were not available)
Comparison of the time of initial assessment, medical assessment and total time in triage in 2012 and 2013
| Waiting times | Orange | Yellow | Green | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 2013 | 2012 | 2013 | 2012 | 2013 | |
| Time waiting for initial assessmenta |
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| Waiting time – median | 00:28 | 00:14 | 00:22 | 00:16 | 00:28 | 00:16 |
| Standard Deviation | 00:37 | 00:30 | 00:54 | 00:25 | 00:40 | 00:32 |
|
| 0.008 | <0.001 | 0.012 | |||
| Time between arrival and medical assessment |
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| Waiting time – median | 01:29 | 01:16 | 01:09 | 01:00 | 01:13 | 01:00 |
| Standard Deviation | 00:45 | 01:50 | 01:07 | 01:39 | 00:45 | 00:50 |
| p value | <0.001 | <0.001 | 0.655 | |||
| Total time in triageb |
| n = 49 |
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| n = 49 |
| Waiting time – median | 02:03 | 01:32 | 01:38 | 01:58 | 01:58 | 01:55 |
| Standard Deviation | 01:34 | 01:14 | 01:11 | 01:32 | 01:03 | 01:19 |
| p value | <0.001 | 0.228 | 0.354 | |||
aIn 2012 this is the time between arrival and midwifery assessment, in 2013 this is the time between arrival and triage assessment
bAcross both years this is the time between arrival and discharge/admission to another location
N.B. This table only contains women for whom the relevant times were recorded
Accuracy and inter-rater reliability
| Measure | Percentage of agreement | ICC (95% CI) | Unweighted IRR (95% CI) c |
|---|---|---|---|
| Green | 98.33% | a | 0.94 (0.93–1.0) |
| Yellow | 68.33% | 0.50 (0.15–0.99)b | 0.70 (0.67–0.85) |
| Orange | 96.67% | a | 0.83 (0.82–0.88) |
| Red | 100% | a | 0.97 (0.96–1.00) |
| Overall | 90.83% | 0.961 (0.91–0.99) | 0.85 (.85–.89) |
aunable to compute ICC due to low variance – scores are to highly consistent
bNumber should be interpreted with caution due to low variance and large CIs
cLight Kappa statistic used to compute unweighted IRR
dBootstrap – t utilised to adjust confidence intervals [1]