Triage: Key Process in the Healthcare Management

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TRIAGE: KEY PROCESS IN HEALTHCARE MANAGEMENT

TREELOGIC TEAM| 03/04/2020

The current coronavirus crisis is highlighting the importance of a process that has been carried out in hospital emergencies around the world for many years: triage.

Triage: Key Process in the Healthcare Management — The SET triage system incorporates advanced protocols specific to the fight against COVID-19.

The current coronavirus crisis is highlighting the importance of a process that has been carried out in hospital emergencies around the world for many years: triage.

Invented by the Napoleonic armies (hence the French origin of the term) to establish medical priorities in the face of the numerous soldiers wounded in battle, its current use in hospital emergency rooms dates from the 1960s. Even though at its core it remains a classification of patients to prioritise care according to needs and resources, this practice is constantly evolving. We are the example.

Our Triage set is based on clinically validated algorithms that are endorsed by the most prestigious organisations, from emergency medicine associations to the WHO itself. In addition, we have been developing new functionalities to adapt to current needs. Many of these are now absolutely essential for any modern medical organisation to address the challenges that we have to face.

This crisis has accelerated something that was already a reality and for which we have been preparing for some time. Our holistic concept of triage means that we can now have tools that help clinicians and society as a whole to fight against situations such as those that we are facing today. .

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Structured Triage System

The Structured Triage System. The most widely deployed system in the Spanish public health service, the most important private groups, and with presence in several Latin American countries, marks a new milestone. A few years ago we saw the need to implement a triage system not only in specialised care (hospitals), but also in primary care centres, something which is now saving lives. We are now the first triage system to incorporate an advanced protocol that is specific to the fight against COVID-19. When patients are classified, if their vital signs, symptoms and background make them susceptible to being affected by the disease, the clinical staff are alerted in order to proceed in the most correct manner. This will involve isolating the patient until a medical professional makes a diagnosis confirming, or not, the suspected disease.

This will prevent many infections of a disease which, beyond the current state of pandemic, has come to stay. And, very importantly, without losing sight of the possibility of new crises, which, as the world health authorities state, will become increasingly frequent and which can be addressed in the same way thanks to the possibility offered by the SET in the development of these specific protocols.

Structured SELF-TRIAGE System

On the basis of SET algorithms, we provide society with a tool that, without losing clinical effectiveness, can be used by any member of the public.

Being able to self-classify from home. Being able, from any telemedicine platform, to know the severity level of our illness without having to go to the doctor, being referred to the right specialist and, in short, receiving the proper care, are now more essential than ever.

The saturation of emergency rooms, the demand for speedy care and cases such as the current one of home quarantine make it essential to have this solution. It is not marketing, it is not “snake oil” following fashionable words like “artificial intelligence”; it is a clinically endorsed reality with years of experience and effectiveness behind it.

Triage by telephone

For those people who, although they need telematic help, do not have the means or knowledge to use our self-triage tool.

A resource that enables care to be prioritised and resources mobilised, under clinical criteria, even when the professionals offering the service are not qualified healthcare professionals. Also essential, as is being demonstrated at this time, not only in call centres, but also in hospitals and health centres.

SEPSIS: a new challenge

The cause of the death of one patient every 4 seconds, and the source of a cost per person admitted to the ICU of about €18,000, the fight against the “silent death” entails quick detection for subsequent effective monitoring.

Our next goal (which we have been working on for months) will be to provide tools in the area of early warning in cases of sepsis and septic shock. These will be an essential ally for clinics and patients.

These will collect data from hospital management systems, laboratories and the triage system itself, in real time, in order to warn about a case as soon as it arises.

As you can see, our catalogue is as large as the capacity of our professionals, who work side by side with our prescribers and clinical partners, so that our tools focus on what is really important: saving lives.