The overall concordance of triage level between emergency medical technicians, triage nurses and instructor

Background and Objective : Triage is essential for classification of patients in order to providing the best treatment and their transport to medical centers. The concordance of triage level between emergency medical technicians and triage nurses increases the accuracy and reduce of delivery time of patients, however the results of some studies demonstrated the poor triage of patients. This study was conducted aimed to determine the overall concordance of triage level between emergency medical technicians, triage nurses and instructor.

Materials and Method: In this descriptive study, one instructor, 5 triage nurses and 30 emergency medical technicians participated through census in Iranshahr in 2014. Data collection tools were the demographic information form and “Emergency Severity Index" triage form. 78 patients were triaged separately by emergency medical technicians, triage nurses and instructor (as criteria). The overall concordance was assessed by kappa coefficient using SPSS 16.

Results: The Kappa coefficient about the overall concordance of triage between emergency medical technicians and triage nurses was 0.20, between emergency medical technicians and instructor was 0.10 and between triage nurse and instructor was 0.19

Conclusion: According to the results, the overall concordance in triage level between triage nurse, emergency medical technicians and instructor was poor. Therefore, triage training courses and implementation of common triage is suggested for increase the agreement rate and reduce the time of patient transfer.