Triage of Metropolitan Emergency Department Patients that Arrive via Ambulance into the Waiting Room

Triage of Metropolitan Emergency Department Patients that Arrive via Ambulance into the Waiting Room.

SCOPE

This policy applies to all WA metropolitan public hospitals providing Emergency Department (ED) services.

BACKGROUND

Triage is the first point of contact for any patient presenting to a metropolitan ED. It aims to ensure that patients are treated in the order of clinical urgency and is central to the efficient and effective allocation of clinical resources. Quality triage ensures that the level of care provided is commensurate to the clinical need.

Current practice recommends that St. John Ambulance Australia (SJAA) patients should be triaged as soon as practicable after arrival at a metropolitan ED for optimal patient safety and quality of care.

KEY POINTS

1. As a strategy to enhance patient flow, on ambulance arrival at a metropolitan ED, patients are to be triaged as soon as possible by the ED Triage Nurse.
2. At the time of triage, the ED Triage Nurse in consultation with the St John Ambulance Officer, will assess and decide whether the patient is clinically appropriate to be directed to the ED waiting room.
3. In the event that an ambulance patient is appropriately triaged to the ED waiting room, the St John ambulance crew will handover care of the patient to the ED Triage Nurse and be free to clear the hospital.

Kim Snowball
DIRECTOR GENERAL
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH WA