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Table 1 Patient characteristics, EMS assessment and hospital assessment for patients transported to hospital

From: Pre-hospital triage performance and emergency medical services nurse’s field assessment in an unselected patient population attended to by the emergency medical services: a prospective observational study

 

Total

Red

Orange

Yellow

Green

P1

n = 4465

n = 596

n = 1588

n = 1919

n = 362

 

Age – years (25th, 75th percentiles)

 Median

69 (45,83)

71 (47,83)

66 (42,81)

71 (47,84)

71 (48,85)

< 0.001

Sex – n (%)

     

< 0.001

 Female

2319 (51.9)

278 (46.6)

783 (49.3)

1040 (54.2)

218 (60.2)

 

Dispatcher priority – n (%) (2,5,9,2)2

     

< 0.001

 Priority 1

2218 (49.9)

455 (76.6)

926 (58.5)

752 (39.4)

85 (23.6)

 

 Priority 2

2059 (46.3)

134 (22.6)

628 (39.7)

1067 (55.9)

230 (63.9)

 

 Priority 3

170 (3.8)

5 (0.8)

29 (1.8)

91 (4.8)

45 (12.5)

 

Dispatch medical index3 - n (%) (3,7,9,3)2

 Chest pain/cardiac disease

651 (14.7)

94 (15.9)

250 (15.8)

273 (14.3)

34 (9.5)

0.034

 Extremity/wound/minor trauma

609 (13.7)

12 (2.0)

191 (12.1)

337 (17.6)

69 (19.2)

< 0.001

 Abdominal/urinary tract symptoms

519 (11.7)

40 (6.7)

135 (8.5)

312 (16.3)

32 (8.9)

< 0.001

 Uncertain information/suspicion of severe illness

476 (10.7)

47 (7.9)

168 (10.6)

210 (11.0)

51 (14.2)

0.089

 Respiratory difficulties

462 (10.4)

152 (25.6)

137 (8.7)

136 (7.1)

37 (10.3)

< 0.001

Time of day – n (%)

     

0.001

 08:00–16:00

2092 (46.9)

274 (46.0)

686 (43.2)

930 (48.5)

202 (55.8)

 

 16:00–24:00

1547 (34.6)

199 (33.4)

606 (38.2)

642 (33.5)

100 (27.6)

 

 24:00–08:00

826 (18.5)

123 (20.6)

296 (18.6)

347 (18.1)

60 (16.6)

 

Time on scene – min (25th, 75th percentile)

 Median

22 (15,30)

25 (18,33)

22 (15,30)

21 (14,29)

21 (14,31)

< 0.001

Medical history4 – n(%)

 Diseases of the circulatory system I00-I99

4459 (30.2)

715 (33.1)

1593 (30.0)

1846 (29.8)

305 (27.9)

0.008

 Mental and behavioural disorders F01-F99

2222 (15.1)

333 (15.4)

873 (16.4)

861 (13.9)

155 (14.2)

0.002

 Endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases E00-E89

1338 (9.1)

198 (9.2)

447 (8.4)

594 (9.6)

99 (9.1)

0.186

 Diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue M00-M99

1014 (6.9)

101 (4.7)

348 (6.6)

457 (7.4)

108 (9.9)

< 0.001

 Diseases of the digestive system K00-K95

878 (6.0)

108 (5.0)

299 (5.6)

415 (6.7)

56 (5.1)

0.008

 No medical history

569 (12.7)

59 (9.9)

211 (13.3)

249 (13.0)

50 (13.8)

0.455

Prehospital field assessment according to RETTS-A5 – n (%)

 Abdominal/flank pain

460 (10.3)

36 (6.0)

117 (7.4)

289 (15.1)

18 (5.0)

< 0.001

 Chest/thoracic pain

456 (10.2)

65 (10.9)

189 (11.9)

193 (10.1)

9 (2.5)

0.003

 Respiratory distress/dyspnoa/breathing difficulties

382 (8.6)

129 (21.6)

117 (7.4)

103 (5.4)

33 (9.1)

< 0.001

 Unspecific condition

309 (6.9)

20 (3.4)

42 (2.6)

192 (10.0)

55 (15.2)

< 0.001

 Injury head trauma

274 (6.1)

9 (1.5)

142 (8.9)

105 (5.5)

18 (5.0)

0.039

Prehospital medication – n (%)

 Any medication

1565 (35.1)

399 (66.9)

653 (41.1)

472 (24.6)

41 (11.3)

<  0.001

 Intravenous medication

889 (19.9)

227 (38.1)

367 (23.1)

279 (14.5)

16 (4.4)

<  0.001

Management ED – n (%)6

 Admitted to in-patient care

2287 (51.2)

483 (81.0)

866 (54.5)

826 (43.0)

112 (30.9)

<  0.001

 Extended examination – intervention X-ray, CT, US, MR, LP

687 (15.4)

26 (4.4)

300 (18.9)

305 (15.9)

56 (15.5)

0.405

 Lab, drug administration, prescription

1227 (27.5)

80 (13.4)

364 (22.9)

657 (34.2)

126 (34.8)

<  0.001

 Clinical exam observation only

219 (4.9)

7 (1.2)

45 (2.8)

112 (5.8)

55 (15.2)

<  0.001

 Patient managed by ED nurse, referral to primary care

45 (1.0)

0 (0.0)

13 (0.8)

19 (1.0)

13 (3.6)

0.007

 Under the influence of substances (alcohol, drugs) – n (%)

398 (8.9)

67 (11.2)

216 (13.6)

91 (4.7)

24 (6.6)

<  0.001

Days of in-patient care – n

 Mean (SD)

7.97 (9.15)

8.53 (10.35)

7.48 (8.92)

8.06 (8.76)

8.74 (8.00)

0.463

 Median (25th, 75th percentile)

5 (2,11)

6 (3,10)

5 (2,10)

6 (3,11)

6 (3,13)

0.042

Final hospital assessment, ICD-10 codes – n (%) (8,59,62,24)2

 (R) Symptoms, signs and abnormal clinical and laboratory findings

851 (19.7)

57 (9.7)

305 (19.9)

436 (23.5)

53 (15.7)

< 0.001

 (S,T) Injury, poisoning and certain other consequnces of external causes

828 (19.2)

53 (9.0)

333 (21.8)

379 (20.4)

63 (18.6)

0.113

 (I) Diseases of the circulatory system

550 (12.8)

148 (25.2)

196 (12.8)

178 (9.6)

28 (8.3)

< 0.001

 (J) Diseases of the respiratory system

351 (8.1)

115 (19.6)

133 (8.7)

94 (5.1)

9 (2.7)

< 0.001

 (F) Mental, behavioural and neurodevelopmental disorders

301 (7.0)

53 (9.0)

110 (7.2)

100 (5.4)

38 (11.2)

0.073

All-cause mortality – n (%)

 ≤ 7 days

88 (2.0)

39 (6.5)

33 (2.1)

16 (0.8)

0 (0.0)

< 0.001

 ≤ 30 days

209 (4.7)

73 (12.2)

80 (5.0)

50 (2.6)

6 (1.7)

< 0.001

 ≤ 365 days

705 (15.8)

155 (26.0)

237 (14.9)

264 (13.8)

49 (13.5)

< 0.001

  1. 1 P-values calculated on red/orange and yellow/green groups respectively
  2. 2 Missing patients in each triage colour category respectively
  3. 3 The five most common dispatcher assessments according to dispatch medical index
  4. 4 Past medical history – one patient can have multiple diagnoses within the same category
  5. 5 The five most common prehospital assessments according to RETTS-A
  6. 6 One patient per category, descending order. CT computed tomography, US ultrasound, MR magnetic resonance, LP lumbar puncture