Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2009 Aug 27:17:38.
doi: 10.1186/1757-7241-17-38.

Reliability and validity of triage systems in paediatric emergency care

Mirjam van Veen  1 , Henriette A Moll
Affiliations
Review

Reliability and validity of triage systems in paediatric emergency care

Mirjam van Veen et al. Scand J Trauma Resusc Emerg Med. .

Abstract

Background: Triage in paediatric emergency care is an important tool to prioritize seriously ill children. Triage can also be used to identify patients who do not need urgent care and who can safely wait. The aim of this review was to provide an overview of the literature on reliability and validity of current triage systems in paediatric emergency care

Methods: We performed a search in Pubmed and Cochrane on studies on reliability and validity of triage systems in children

Results: The Manchester Triage System (MTS), the Emergency Severity Index (ESI), the Paediatric Canadian Triage and Acuity Score (paedCTAS) and the Australasian Triage Scale (ATS) are common used triage systems and contain specific parts for children. The reliability of the MTS is good and reliability of the ESI is moderate to good. Reliability of the paedCTAS is moderate and is poor to moderate for the ATS.The internal validity is moderate for the MTS and confirmed for the CTAS, but not studied for the most recent version of the ESI, which contains specific fever criteria for children.

Conclusion: The MTS and paedCTAS both seem valid to triage children in paediatric emergency care. Reliability of the MTS is good, moderate to good for the ESI and moderate for the paedCTAS. More studies are necessary to evaluate if one triage system is superior over other systems when applied in emergency care.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Manchester Triage System flowchart Shortness of breath in children (Second edition). Reprinted with permission from Mackway-Jones K et al. Emergency Triage, Manchester Triage Group. Second edition. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd; 2006, p 134.[5]
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Mackway-Jones K. Emergency Triage, Manchester Triage Group. London: BMJ Publishing Group; 1997. - PubMed
    1. Australian College for Emergency Medicine. Guidelines on the implementation of the australasian triage scale in emergency departments http://www.acem.org.au/media/policies_and_guidelines/G24_Implementation_...
    1. Canadian Paediatric Triage and Acuity Scale: Implementation Guidelines for Emergency departments. Can J Emerg Med. 2001;3 doi: 10.1111/j.1553-2712.2005.tb00872.x. - DOI
    1. Gilboy N, Tanabe P, Travers D, Rosenau A, Eitel D. Emergency Severity Index, version 4: Implementation Handbook. Rockville: Agency for healthcare Research and Quality; 2001. http://www.ahrq.gov/research/esi/esihandbk.pdf
    1. Mackway-Jones K, Marsden J, Windle J. Emergency Triage, Manchester Triage Group. Second. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd; 2006.