Repeatability of the Manchester Triage System for children.
OBJECTIVE
The authors aimed to assess the repeatability of the Manchester Triage System (MTS) in children.


METHODS
All emergency department nurses (n=43) from a general teaching hospital and a university children's hospital in The Netherlands triaged 20 written case scenarios using the Manchester Triage system. Second, at two emergency departments (EDs), real-life simultaneous triage of patients (<16 years) was performed by ED nurses and two research nurses. The written case scenarios and the patients included in the real-life simultaneous triage study were representative of children attending the ED, in age, problem and urgency level. The authors assessed inter-rater agreement using quadratic weighted kappa values.


RESULTS
The weighted kappa between the nurses, triaging the case scenarios, was 0.83 (95% CI 0.74 to 0.91). In total, 88% (N=198) of the eligible ED patients were triaged simultaneously, with a weighted kappa of 0.65 (95% CI 0.56 to 0.72).


CONCLUSIONS
The MTS showed good to very good repeatability in paediatric emergency care.
van Veen
M
M
Department of Paediatrics, Erasmus MC-Sophia Children's Hospital, University Medical Center Rotterdam, 3000 CB Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Teunen-van der Walle
V F M
VF
Steyerberg
E W
EW
van Meurs
A H J
AH
Ruige
M
M
Strout
T D
TD
van der Lei
J
J
Moll
H A
HA
D002648:Child; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000592:standards*; D006776:Hospitals, Pediatric / Q000592:standards; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching / Q000592:standards; D006785:Hospitals, University / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D009426:Netherlands; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital; D015588:Observer Variation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014218:Triage / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards