The Region approves the guidelines for the reorganization of triage procedures in the emergency rooms of Sardinia. A model «based on organizational efficiency in access management» to avoid the long queues that often arise in many hospitals.
«Triage – explains the regional health councilor Carlo Doria – represents the first moment of welcome for people arriving in the emergency room and is a function that has the purpose of identifying assistance priorities . The model to which the new guidelines refer is that of 'global triage' , where the patient is taken care of according to an approach aimed at managing all his problems through an assessment based on subjective and objective elements . The new addresses apply the national guidelines on our territory, as a result of a work carried out by a regional control room made up of the directors of the emergency rooms with the highest number of accesses. The new model will be preceded by training courses for personnel».
The new guidelines provide for a system based on five priority codes indicated with a numbering from one to five, from most to least urgent, associated with the colours: red (emergency), orange (urgency), blue (deferrable urgency, "characterized by a low evolutionary risk of the patient's condition»), green (minor urgency) and white (non-urgency). For all codes (with the exception of red, for which the standard provides for immediate access to medical treatment) a re-evaluation is envisaged at pre-established intervals.
«Of particular importance – underlines councilor Doria – is what is envisaged for codes 4 and 5, ie whites and greens, which include the possibility of activating rapid routes called 'fast track' . We are talking about cases with low complexity of care which require a type of assistance attributable to a single specialist and which in most cases end up with the patient being sent home . The different pathways (orthopaedic, ophthalmological, dermatological, gynecological, urological, etc…) are defined by the same structures through specific protocols and provide for the patient to be sent directly from the triage to the specialist clinic of competence , with a consequent relief on the activity of the emergency room".
"We have also introduced - declares the commissioner - an evaluation system (technically defined as 'Quick sequential organ failure assessment') to determine more accurately the access priority of patients with suspected sepsis , one of the emerging clinical situations whose incidence and mortality is constantly increasing and is destined to increasingly affect health systems. Today the most serious criticality of the emergency room is the lack of personnel , a problem that affects the whole country. Intermediate territorial structures are certainly an indispensable tool for reducing the impact on emergency rooms , but intervening on organizational models is equally necessary to optimize resource management and make assistance more efficient, for the benefit of patients and operators themselves".
(Unioneonline/D)
