• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• 제33권1호
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• pp.13-17
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• 2020

Purpose: Accurate and appropriate prehospital field triage is essential for a trauma system. The Korean trauma system (established in 2014) uses the trauma field triage algorithm of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This study evaluated the suitability of the CDC field triage criteria for major trauma cases (injury severity score >15) in Korea. Methods: This retrospective cohort study evaluated trauma patients who presented at the authors' regional trauma center from January 1 to May 7, 2017. The undertriage and overtriage rates of each CDC field triage step were calculated. Receiver operating characteristic curves were constructed, and the area under the curve (AUC) was evaluated for each step. Results: Among the 1,009 enrolled patients, 168 (16.7%) had major trauma. The undertriage/overtriage rates of each step (steps I, II, III, and IV) of CDC field triage were 9.2%/47.4%, 6.3%/50.8%, 4.5%/59.4%, and 5.3%/78.9%, respectively. The AUC values of each CDC triage step were 0.722, 0.783, 0.791, and 0.615, respectively. The AUC values of the separate components of each step (physiologic criteria, anatomic criteria, mechanism-of-injury criteria, and special considerations) were 0.722, 0.648, 0.647, and 0.456, respectively. Conclusions: The CDC field triage system is acceptable, but not ideal, for Korean trauma care. If we follow the protocol, it would be preferable to omit step IV. The Korean Triage and Acuity Scale may be a good indicator for in-hospital triage. However, a new triage protocol that is simple to estimate on-scene while having good performance should be developed.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• 제26권3호
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• pp.89-98
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• 2013

Purpose: The assessment of trauma patients in the prehospital setting is difficult, but appropriate field triage is critical to the prognosis of trauma patients. We sought to evaluate the triage given by the emergency medical technicians (EMTs) using the trauma score to patients injured in motor vehicle collisions (MVCs). Methods: From June 2012 to July 2012, questionnaires were distributed to EMTs, who had transported injured patients to the study hospital. Scene records, photos of the damaged vehicle, and ambulance run sheets were used to provide physiologic, physical, and mechanistic information about the MVC. To evaluate the appropriateness of the injury assessment by EMTs, we compared their impressions with the hospital's final diagnosis within a 3 level triage system comprising both the maximum abbreviated injury scale (MAIS) and the injury severity score (ISS). Kappa (k) was calculated to evaluate the agreement between the triage by EMTs and the triage based on hospital's final diagnosis. Results: A total of 91 patients were analyzed by 31 EMTs. The percentage of males was 57.1%, the mean age was 44.5, and the mean MAIS and ISS were 2.7 and 16.6 respectively. While EMTs correctly diagnosed patient injuries to the extremities in 35.7%, and to the neck in 32.1%, pelvic injuries were missed in 80.0%. The agreement between the triage by the EMTs and the triage based on the hospital's final diagnosis was 62.6%(k=0.366) by the MAIS and 50.5%(k=0.234) by the ISS. The kappa value was higher in EMT-I than in EMT-II. Conclusion: In MVC, the assessment of injured patients by EMT-I was more appropriate, and the 3-level triage method based on the MAIS could contribute to a more accurate triage. Prospective studies to search for appropriate methods of field triage are required for programming practical education for EMTs.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• 제25권4호
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• pp.145-151
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• 2012

Purpose: The objective of this study was to determine the appropriateness of Emergency Medical Service's (EMS's) triage and transport of severely injured patients in Busan and Kyungnam, Korea. Methods: The medical records of the Emergency Medical Information Center were retrospectively reviewed from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2010. We identified the number of patients that should have been transferred from a secondary to a tertiary hospital according to the EMS field triage protocol. Results: In a total of 472 cases requests to be transferred to a third hospital were made through the Emergency Medical Information Center. Of these, 207 patients(43.9%) should have been transferred to a tertiary hospital according to the EMS field triage protocol. Among them, thirty-three(15.9%) patients satisfied step 1, 15(7.0%) satisfied step 2, and 117(56.5%) satisfied step 3. Twenty-three(11.1%) patients satisfied both steps 1 and 3. Conclusion: We found the triage by the EMS in the transfer of severely injured patients to a tertiary hospital to be inappropriate and re-education of EMS personnel regarding the EMS field triage protocol is needed. Because many patients are transferred from a secondary to a third hospital, we suggest changing the EMS field triage protocol to expand the severe injury criteria. A need exists to authorize secondary hospitals to transfer severely injured patients directly because there are no trauma centers in Korea.

• 기본간호학회지
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• 제24권3호
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• pp.230-242
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• 2017

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop a self triage application for rescue requests by disaster vulnerable populations. Literature was reviewed in order to define application trends and needs. Methods: Development of the self triage application was conducted in six stages as a hybrid model (analysis, design, development, implementation, evaluation, modification) of the ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation) model and Driscoll & Alexander model. Application system function and contents were tried with 6 experts and 4 people with hearing impairments. Results: Expert assessment of the application for self triage showed that reliability at 5 points was the highest, followed by utility at 4.8 points. Scores for quickness and expressiveness were low at 4.6 and 4.2 points respectively. User acceptability assessment of the application was measured at 66.73 points. Conclusion: The results show that the application for self triage is helpful to disaster vulnerable populations by providing relief in disaster situations. It is expected that use of this application as a self rescue ability can be made available for disaster situations. However, it will be necessary to establish policies for communication strategies with rescuers and public relations to improve the access rate of disaster app service.

• 한국간호교육학회지
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• 제21권4호
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• pp.477-489
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• 2015

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument to assess emergency room nurses' knowledge and performance of triage nursing. Methods: The instrument was developed through the stages of conceptual construction, item development, and validity and reliability testing. For the validity and reliability testing, data collected from 48 emergency room nurses using questionnaires was analyzed through descriptive statistics, factor analysis, and reliability coefficients. Results: The knowledge part consisted of 30 items in nine areas, and its reliability was low (KR-20 =0.50). The correct-answer rate was 71.8%. The performance section derived from the factor analysis was composed of two factors with nine items in the triage domain and three factors with 12 items in the non triage domain. The explanatory powers of these factors for the domains were 66.1% and 70.4%, respectively. The overall reliability (Cronbach's ${\alpha}$) was .95, and the reliabilities for the two domains were .88 and .91, respectively. The nurses' mean performance level was 3.2(${\pm}0.45$). Conclusion: The specific contents of the triage nursing work were identified from the developed scale; further research is necessary to in order to develop a scale capable of higher reliability and validity.

• 의료ㆍ복지 건축 : 한국의료복지건축학회 논문집
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• 제25권1호
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• pp.41-49
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• 2019

Purpose: After Mers breakout in 2015, major hospital in Korea have been renovated the emergency department to make a separate infection control zone for high-risk patient with potential infection and to improve a triage area and an entrance area for efficient patient evaluation. However, there are no specific design standards to reinforce infection control for patients and staffs safety. Therefore, it is important to establish of initial design factors in the triage and entrance area as a guideline. Methods: 5 cases which had been recently renovated are selected to analyze patient circulation and spatial composition in a triage area and an entrance area. The partial floor plans of each case are represented as bubble diagrams to help understanding of different patient circulation flows. Based on this analysis, significant design factors which should be considered in planning stage for infection control have been extracted. Results: 13 design factors are established. Using these design factors, patient circulation diagram is generated to provide an optimized suggestion for efficient infection control. Implications: This suggestion provides basic databases to start to establish design guideline in the triage area and the entrance area to minimize infection spreading in the emergency department.

• Journal of Medicine and Life Science
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• 제17권1호
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• pp.7-15
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• 2020

The field triage guidelines have been widely implemented in the Korean trauma system. This study aimed to evaluate and validate whether it is reliable to use the field triage guidelines for predicting severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) and traumatic spinal injury (TSI) patients. This study retrospectively analyzed in-hospital cohort registries of all TBI and TSI patients, who visited the emergency department (ED) of the Jeju National University Hospital from 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2015. The primary outcome was defined as TBI and TSI patients with an injury severity score (ISS)>15. Secondary outcomes were defined as cases in which one or more of the following conditions: in-hospital death, ISS>15, admission to the intensive care unit, emergency surgery. We enrolled 14,889 TBI and TSI patients who visited ED, of which 7,966 (53.5%) were triage positive. The overall sensitivity, specificity and area under the curve (AUC) of the full cumulative field triage guidelines step's model (Step 1+3+4 criteria) for primary outcome were 82.8%, 47.0%, and 0.646, respectively. In the results for secondary outcomes, the specificity did not show a significant difference, but the sensitivity decreased to 66.5% and AUC to 0.568. The results of this study suggest that further optimization of the field triage guidelines is needed to identify high-risk TBI and TSI patients.

• 임상간호연구
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• 제26권1호
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• pp.107-116
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• 2020

Purpose: This study was a prospective survey to evaluate the Korean Triage and Acuity Scale (KTAS) inter-rater reliability and to identify discordant areas in the KTAS classification between nurses and paramedics in emergency department (ED). Methods: Inter-rater reliability were evaluated using triage deta from January 11 to May 31, 2019. A convinience sample of a total of 800 patients who visited an emergnecy medical center in Incheon (400 adult and 400 pediatric patients in this study) were selected. The triages of this study a pair of one nurse and one paramedic performed triage at the same time, using the KTAS, Inter-rater reliability for the KTAS was evaluated with the weighted kappa. Results: The inter-rater reliability of the KTAS evaluated by weighted Kappa between nurse-paramedic KTAS score of adult patients was .71, and .66 for pediatric patients. Both were in the level considered as substantial. Among causes of triage discordance, the most frequently identified discordant item in triaging adults was the difference in the measurement of pain intensity (28.0%). For both adult and pediatric patients, multiple chief complaint was identified as the major discordant factor. In triaging pediatric patients the body temperature assessment by subjective judgments was the highest discordant item (50.7%). Conclusion: The study result suggested that the KTAS demonstrated a reasonable level of inter-rater reliability and functioned as a standardized triage tool for emergency medical services. In order to improve the inter-rater reliability and classification competence, it is necessary to revise the current all-integrated KTAS provider course to be differentiated for each job group.

• 대한응급의학회지
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• 제29권6호
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• pp.616-623
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• 2018

Objective: The shock index (SI), as a trauma triage tool, is a capable clinical indicator of hemodynamic instability and hypovolemic shock, but the conception of SI is contradictory to shock. The reverse shock index (RSI) was introduced recently, but its utility has not been sufficiently proven. Methods: This study examined the RSI utility by evaluating the procedures performed at an emergency department (ED) and the associated outcomes when the RSI is used alone or in combination with the Korean Triage and Acuity Scale (KTAS). This was a retrospective study conducted by including data of 4,789 adult trauma patients for a year. The clinical variables, procedures performed on patients, and outcomes were investigated. The median RSI was 0.9 in the RSI<1 group. Results: Patients in the RSI<1 group had a higher odds of requiring procedures at the ED and for experiencing worse outcomes: intubation (odds ratio [OR], 5.4; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.3-13.1; P<0.001), chest tube insertion (OR, 6.5; 95% CI, 0.4-111.84; P<0.001), use of emergency drugs (OR, 3.6; 95% CI, 1.5-8.5; P<0.001), circulatory support (OR, 5.4; 95% CI, 2.3-12.9; P<0.001), intensive care unit admission (OR, 3.5; 95% CI, 1.8-6.8; P<0.001), and mortality during the ED stay (OR, 20.4; 95% CI, 5.5-75.7; P<0.001). In the group with KTAS 1-3, trends similar to those in the RSI<1 group were observed. Patients with RSI<1 had more severe injuries and poorer outcomes than those with $RSI{\geq}1$, regardless of whether the RSI was used alone or in combination with KTAS. Conclusion: RSI can provide an appropriate triage with concurrent KTAS use.

• 한국응급구조학회지
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• 제25권1호
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• pp.7-22
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• 2021

Purpose: This study aimed to identify the differences in pre-hospital and in-hospital triage (pre-hospital triage and KTAS(Korean Triage and Acuity Scale)) of patients with abdominal pain and the characteristics of high hospitalization probability in the treatment results. Methods: We analyzed 941 people who visited the area C emergency center for 2 years from January 2017 to December 2018. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 26. Results: Among the transfer hospitals, 84.8% (798) of patients were selected by the 119 rescue service, and the most common diagnosis was simple abdominal pain (46.5%, 438 patients). A total of 50.7% (477) of patients classified as severe pre-hospital cases changed to mild in-hospital cases. There was a difference of 5.3% (50 cases) in cases where patients classified as mild pre-hospital were changed to severe in-hospital cases. The Kappa coefficient did not match with 0.04 (p=.051). Pre-hospital overtriage was 58.2% (548 cases), and 71.2% (670) of patients were discharged from the emergency room as a result of the treatment. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that pre-hospital and in-hospital triage were not consistent. The rates of pre-hospital overtriage were quite high. Most patients with abdominal pain were classified as mild cases, and pre-hospital triage classifiers should be trained to reduce errors in selecting transfer hospitals.