Abstract
Background: Emergency centres in South Africa are among the busiest in the world and serve as entry points for hospital care for most of the population. The South African Triage Scale (SATS) is a validated tool introduced nationally in 2006 and intended to increase the efficiency of emergency centres through a process of prioritisation of the severely ill patient. The objective of this study was to evaluate the use of the SATS in a busy urban district hospital in Durban, South Africa.
 
 Methods: A chart review of triaged patients was performed. The hospital uses a one-page SATS sheet and manages both medical and surgical patients. The triage history, physiological parameters, application of discriminator lists, final triage code and outcome was audited and compared with findings from the patients’ clinical records.
 
 Results: The mean triage early warning score was 1.50 (95% CI 1–2) and average time to treatment was 59 min (95% CI 51–67). Essential bedside investigations were missing on some very ill patients, there was poor documentation in many fields and confirmed time to treatment was within recommended timescales for only 48% of patients. Use of the discriminator list resulted in over-triage of 66.7% and an under-triage of 14%. Some 76% of patients were discharged from the emergency centre, 15% were admitted and 5.5% were transferred out.
 
 Conclusion: Nurse-led triage has been successfully implemented at the emergency centre of this hospital using SATS but some notable gaps were identified.
 
 (Full text of the research articles are available online at www.medpharm.tandfonline.com/ojfp)
 
 S Afr Fam Pract 2017; DOI: 10.1080/20786190.2017.1307908
Highlights
Emergency centres in South Africa are among the busiest in the world and serve as entry points for hospital care for most of the population
The aim of this study is to evaluate the use of the South African Triage Scale (SATS) in this busy urban district hospital in Durban, South Africa
The mean Triage Early Warning Score (TEWS) score was 1.50 indicating that most patients were coded as green codes
Summary
Emergency centres in South Africa are among the busiest in the world and serve as entry points for hospital care for most of the population. Emergency centres in South Africa are very busy, often flooded by a trauma load that is one of the highest in the world, chronic medical conditions, acute medical emergencies and HIV-related conditions.[1,2,3,4] The government hospitals cater for the majority of the population but these hospitals are poorly funded, ill equipped and often do not have skilled staff.[1,4,5] The district hospitals, which are level one hospitals, often serve as the entry points for hospital care for patients referred by local clinics, private general practitioners and those that self-refer In such a setting, it is important to have a reliable method of sorting or triaging patients so that the severely ill patient who is at risk of deterioration is promptly identified and treated. Easy to use and can be used effectively by nursing assistants in emergency centres providing care to both medical and surgical patients.[2,8] It improves the efficiency of emergency centres, reduces patients’ waiting times, improves patient flow and improves job satisfaction among staff.[1,9,11] these benefits are dependent on the correct implementation of the tool
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