title: Reliability of vital signs measured at triage.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, hamilton Health Sciences and McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. aworster@rogers.com
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Worster
authors.forename: Lori
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Elliott
authors.forename: Teertha J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Bose
authors.forename: Elaine
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Chemeris
mesh_terms: 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*