Validity of the Manchester Triage System in emergency care: A prospective observational study

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0170811
• Publication Date: 2017-02-02T18:47:32Z
• Authors: Joany M. Zachariasse; Nienke Seiger; Pleunie P. M. Rood; Claudio F. Alves; Paulo Freitas; Frank J. Smit; Gert R. Roukema; Henriëtte A. Moll
• Keywords: Triage

Objectives To determine the validity of Manchester Triage System (MTS) in emergency care for general population patients attending department, children and elderly, commonly used MTS flowcharts discriminators across three different settings. Methods This was a prospective observational study European departments. All consecutive department during 1-year period (2010–2012) were included. Validity assessed by comparing urgency as determined triage nurses with patient according to predefined 3-category reference standard proxy true urgency. Results 288,663 included analysis. Sensitivity hospitals ranged from 0.47 (95%CI 0.44–0.49) 0.87 0.85–0.90), specificity 0.84 0.84–0.84) 0.94 0.94–0.94) adult patients. In children, sensitivity 0.65 0.61–0.70) 0.83 0.79–0.87), 0.82–0.83) 0.89 0.88–0.90). The diagnostic odds ratio 13.5 12.1–15.0) 35.3 28.4–43.9) adults 9.8 6.7–14.5) 23.8 17.7–32.0) lowest youngest 2 out 3 settings oldest all Performance varied considerably between Conclusions is moderate good, performance young elderly Future studies on systems should be restricted large, multicenter define modifications improve generalizability findings.