Emergency department triage and COVID‐19: Performance of the Interagency Integrated Triage Tool during a pandemic surge in Papua New Guinea

Abstract

Objective To determine the sensitivity of the Interagency Integrated Triage Tool to identify severe and critical illness among adult patients with COVID‐19. Methods A retrospective observational study conducted at Port Moresby General Hospital ED during a three‐month Delta surge. Results Among 387 eligible patients with COVID‐19, 63 were diagnosed with severe or critical illness. Forty‐seven were allocated a high acuity triage category, equating to a sensitivity of 74.6% (95% CI 62.1–84.7) and a negative predictive value of 92.7% (95% CI 88.4–95.8). Conclusion In a resource‐constrained context, the tool demonstrated reasonable sensitivity to detect severe and critical COVID‐19, comparable with its reported performance for other urgent conditions.

Multimodal learning for emergency department triage implementation: experiences from Papua New Guinea during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…3 , 4 Limited data suggest the IITT can identify ED patients with urgent care needs, including those with COVID-19. 5 , 6 , 7 …”

Triage implementation in resource-limited emergency departments: sharing tools and experience from the Pacific region

“…Although the IITT has been implemented in a number of LMICs, including Bangladesh, Honduras and Somalia [ 8 , 10 , 11 ], most (if not all) data on the tool’s performance emanates from the Pacific region [ 12 – 15 ]. This reflects that triage improvement is a priority for Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs) [ 16 , 17 ], and the initial IITT validation studies were undertaken in Papua New Guinea (PNG) [ 12 , 13 ].…”