Reliability of vital signs measured at triage.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the reliability of vital signs measured at triage in the emergency department.


METHODS
The vital signs of all consenting ambulatory patients 16 years old and above presenting at triage were measured by the duty triage nurse as standard practice and then repeated by a single, blinded, trained observer within 2 min of the initial assessment using the same (manual or electronic) methods. The results were analysed using paired sample t-tests.


RESULTS
No significant difference was found in the repeated electronic measurement of oxygen saturation [95% confidence interval (CI) -0.30-0.46, P=0.687] or repeated manual measurement of respiratory rate (95% CI -1.04-1.76, P=0.613). A statistically but not clinically significant difference of 2.43 bpm was found in the repeated electronic measurement of heart rate (95% CI 0.52-4.33, P=0.013).


CONCLUSIONS
The manual and electronic measurements of vital signs at triage appear to be reliable.
Worster
Andrew
A
Department of Emergency Medicine, hamilton Health Sciences and McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. aworster@rogers.com
Elliott
Lori
L
Bose
Teertha J
TJ
Chemeris
Elaine
E
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012119:Respiration; D014218:Triage / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*