Emergency Triage: Telephone Triage and Advice

Emergency Triage: Telephone Triage and Advice complements the highly successful Emergency Triage.  The algorithms are rooted in the Manchester Triage System (MTS), which is used in hospitals around the world and which is acknowledged as an effective means of clinical prioritisation. 

This telephone iteration of a triage system which prioritises millions of patients each year provides a robust, safe, evidence–based system for managing the clinical risk in patients who are at a distance from health care providers.  The basic principles that drive the MTS remain, but this book addresses the specific difficulties of assessment by telephone.  The possible triage outcomes are face–to–face now , face–to–face soon and face–to–face later together with a self–care option. Information and advice is suggested at every level.  The advice ranges from life–saving interventions, which can be carried out until health care arrives, to self–care instructions. 

Emergency Triage: Telephone Triage and Advice provides all the necessary information that telephone triage staff must have to hand as well as including examples of questions to be asked.  It will be a valuable resource for staff working in emergency departments, health centres and telephone triage organisations. Furthermore hospitals that are already using Emergency Triage will benefit from being linked with a telephone triage system that follows the same protocols.

Editors vi

Acknowledgements vii

Members of the Original Manchester Triage Group viii

International Reference Group ix

Preface x

1  Introduction 1

2  The decision making process and Telephone Triage 6

3  The Telephone Triage method 11

4  The presentation priority matrix 23

5  Ensuring safety in Telephone Triage 27

Presentational Flow Chart Index 32

Presentational flow charts index 34

Discriminator and question dictionary 140

Index 000