Abstract
BACKGROUND: So-called "integrated emergency centers (IEC)" are going to be implemented in German hospitals and will be the first contact point in the emergency care setting. For early decision-making whether outpatient care or inpatient admission in the emergency department is indicated, it would be helpful to have a system to identify patients for outpatient treatment. In this study, we investigated whether the Manchester Triage System (MTS) is suitable for identifying patients who can be safely referred to emergency room patients to outpatient care. METHODS: Patients in the emergency department of the "blue" MTS level were examined for the endpoint inpatient admission and were compared with the next higher MTS category "green". In a second step, the "blue" MTS category was examined for the most common criteria leading to inpatient admission. RESULTS: After excluding patients who were presented by the emergency medical services (EMS) or after prior medical consultation, the rate of inpatient admissions in the blue MTS category was significantly lower than in the green category (10.8% vs 29.0%). The rate could be reduced to 0.9% by establishing a subgroup with the additional exclusion criteria chronic disorder and readmission after prior inpatient treatment (CEReCo-blue group: Chronic Disorder (C), Emergency Medical Service (E), Readmission (R), Prior Medical Consultation (Co)). CONCLUSION: The blue MTS category does not appear to be suitable for the selection of patients with indication for outpatient treatment. We propose the introduction of a subgroup, the so-called CEReCo-blue group, which could be helpful for the selection of this patient group.