title: Validation of the Hong Kong accident and emergency triage guidelines.
abstract: OBJECTIVE. To validate the Hong Kong Accident and Emergency Triage guidelines. DESIGN. Retrospective chart review. SETTING. The Accident and Emergency Department of a tertiary hospital in Hong Kong. PARTICIPANTS. Patients who attended the Accident and Emergency Department on one day in February 2012. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES. The inter-rater reliability in two pairs of nurses grouped according to experience and validity as compared with an expert panel. RESULTS. Of the 100 patients recruited and triaged into levels 1 to 5, the weighted kappa coefficient (inter-rater reliability) for the two pairs of nurses was 0.699 and 0.717, respectively. The weighted kappa coefficient for validity was 0.766. When only patients in triage levels 3 and 4 were included, the weighted kappa coefficient for reliability dropped to 0.632 and 0.585, respectively. The weighted kappa coefficient for validity also decreased to 0.558. CONCLUSIONS. The overall inter-rater reliability and validity of the Guidelines appeared acceptable. Further revision of the Guidelines on triaging patients to levels 3 or 4 is probably necessary.
authors.affiliation: Accident and Emergency Department, Queen Mary Hospital, Pokfulam, Hong Kong. mandymwfan@gmail.com
authors.forename: Mandy M W
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.forename: L P
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Leung
mesh_terms: D000059:Accidents / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006723:Hong Kong; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009726:Nurses / Q000458:organization & administration; D015588:Observer Variation; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014218:Triage / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Emergency service, hospital; Triage; Validation studies