Abdominal pain is the most common symptom with which patients present to the emergency department (ED), and overall visits to EDs in the U.S. are growing twice as fast as the overall population. Interventions that can safely mitigate such a high usage of ED resources would be a great asset in the delivery of effective and efficient ED care. One such intervention is a secondary triage of patients calling 911 for an ambulance who were subsequently triaged as a non-urgent low-acuity caller. Emergency medical services (EMS) using secondary...

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An examination of the Emergency Communications Nurse-determined Recommended Care Levels (RCLs), for calls transferred for secondary nurse-triage has not been performed. The outcome of such an investigation would help to gain a more complete picture of the type of care ultimately recommended for these patients. The Emergency Communications Nurse System (ECNS) studied contained 22 RCLs, ranging from urgent levels, including a country-specific 3-digit number Emergency response (911), and Emergency care as soon as possible to less time-dependent, low priority levels, such...

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This study examined the distribution of the MPDS® Chief Complaint protocols and determinant codes assigned by the EMD as eligible for nurse triage, as well as the distribution of the Chief Complaint protocols contained in the Emergency Communications Nurse System™ (ECNS™) secondary nurse triage process, as determined by the emergency communications nurse (ECN). Protocol distribution was also examined by patient gender. This study characterized protocol and gender distributions to provide a better understanding of the types of patients and their associated...

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