“I Was Here First, Why Did They Go Before Me”: Examining Patients'Perceptions of Priority in a Psychometric Study of Emergency Department Triage

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Unrealistic patient expectations for wait times can lead to poor satisfaction. This study's dual purpose was: (1) to address disparities between patients' perceived priority level and the Emergency Severity Index (ESI) assigned by emergency room triage nurses; and (2) to evaluate validity and reliability of using the Patient Perception of Priority to be Seen Survey (PPPSS) to investigate patient expectations for emergency department urgency. A two-group pretest-posttest quasi-experimental approach compared patient urgency opinions to nurse urgency ratings with and without a scripted educational intervention. This tested how closely patient perceptions were related to triage nurse ratings. Reliability for the PPPSS was acceptable (reliability = 0.75). Patients who were rated lower urgency on the ESI by triage nurses tended to self-report higher urgency (rho = -0.44, P < .01). Attitudes were more consistent in the posttest patient group who were exposed to the scripted verbal description of emergency department procedures (χ2 (1, N = 352) = 8.09, P < .01). Patients who disagreed with emergency nurse scores tended to be younger on average (eg, < 40 years old; rho = 0.69, P < .01). Male identified patients tended to be rated both by nurses and themselves as higher urgency (beta = 0.18, P = .02). We recommend the PPPSS for nurses and researchers to quickly assess patient expectations. Additionally, promoting patient understanding through a scripted educational strategy about the ESI system may also result in improvements in communication between patients and nurses.