Triaging - Prioritizing emergency care

Abstract

The people working in the emergency department have the toughest job to match their resources with the problems the patients are presenting with. Similarly, the expectations of the patients and their attendants are at times misguided regarding the emergency situation and the expected treatments. The art of emergency care is in balancing the resources made available to the emergency departments with the patient load presented to them as well as their expectations. This can only be done through proper triaging – the process to see who needs to be seen first.