E-triage: an electronic emergency triage system

Abstract

An embodiment in accordance with the present invention provides a system that uses simple standardized patient information routinely collected at triage to distribute patients amongst triage levels based on critical and time-sensitive outcomes. The present invention estimates the probability of electronic medical record (EMR) recorded events for patients at triage. Predictions are made for patients based upon clinical information routinely collected at triage which include demographics (age and gender), vital signs (temperature, heart rate, systolic blood pressure, respiratory rate, and oxygen saturation), complaint(s), medical/surgical history, chronic conditions, and mode of arrival. Vital signs are categorized as normal or gradations of abnormal.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for emergency department (ED) triage comprising:
 gathering data for patients waiting to be triaged in the ED;   assessing risks for each one of the potential patients waiting in the ED;   determining a patient plan based on the risk for each one of the potential patients waiting in the ED.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising using a non-transitory computer readable medium for the execution of steps of the method. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  wherein gathering data related to the potential patients comprises gathering any of a group consisting of demographics (age and gender), vital signs (temperature, heart rate, systolic blood pressure, respiratory rate, and oxygen saturation), complaint(s), medical/surgical history, chronic conditions, and mode of arrival. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising assigning each one of the patients a score indicating the risk to the patient 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising predicting a patient's needs in the ED at triage. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5  further comprising predicting a patient's needs in the ED at triage using data selected from a group consisting of (1) in-hospital (including ED) mortality, (2) intensive care unit admission, (3) emergent surgical procedure including catheterization, and (4) inpatient hospitalization, (5) other acute clinical outcomes available in electronic medical record. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising displaying information related to the patient plan. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 4  further comprising displaying one selected from a group consisting displaying a specific patient score and patient scores for the ED. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising alerting the user based on patient risk. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising prompting a health care provider for additional information on the patient. 
     
     
         11 . A system for emergency department (ED) triage comprising:
 a non-transitory computer readable medium programmed for:   gathering data for patients waiting to be triaged in the ED;   assessing risks for each one of the potential patients waiting in the ED;   determining a patient plan based on the risk for each one of the potential patients waiting in the ED.   
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 11  further comprising a computing device selected from a group consisting of a personal computer, laptop, smartphone, tablet, server, and cloud based computing device. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 11  wherein gathering data related to the potential patients comprises gathering any of a group consisting of demographics (age and gender), vital signs (temperature, heart rate, systolic blood pressure, respiratory rate, and oxygen saturation), complaint(s), medical/surgical history, chronic conditions, and mode of arrival. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 11  further comprising assigning each one of the patients a score indicating the risk to the patient 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 11  further comprising predicting a patient's needs in the ED at triage. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 15  further comprising predicting a patient's needs in the ED at triage using data selected from a group consisting of (1) in-hospital (including ED) mortality, (2) intensive care unit admission, (3) emergent surgical procedure including catheterization, and (4) inpatient hospitalization, (5) other acute clinical outcomes available in electronic medical record. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 11  further comprising a display. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 14  further comprising displaying one selected from a group consisting displaying a specific patient score and patient scores for the ED. 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 11  further comprising alerting the user based on patient risk. 
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 11  further comprising prompting a health care provider for additional information on the patient.