The Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale for Children; A Prospective Multi-Center Evaluation.

Completed

• Conditions: Triage; Pediatrics

• Registration Number: NCT00807352
• Lead Sponsor: St. Justine's Hospital

Brief Summary

The aim of this study is to evaluate the validity and the reproducibility of the canadian triage and acuity scale when applied by regular nurses for the triage of children in the Emergency Department.

Detailed Description

The role of triage in the Emergency Department (ED) is to assign high priority to patients who need urgent care while identifying patients that may be able to wait safely. The Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale (CTAS) is a triage tool constructed from a consensus of experts that is universally used in Canada. Until now, there has been no evaluation of the validity of the tool for children in a clinical context. Also, its inter-rater reproducibility has not been evaluated. The expected implementation of a revised version of the Canadian triage tool in 2008 would be an ideal moment to evaluate its validity and reproducibility. Specific objective: 1. To evaluate the validity of the CTAS for children visiting a pediatric ED and 2. To measure the inter-rater agreement for nurses using the CTAS in these settings.

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2008-12-10
• Study First Submitted QC: 2008-12-10
• Study First Posted: 2008-12-11
• Study Start: 2009-04
• Primary Completion: 2011-03
• Study Completion: 2011-03
• Status Verified: 2011-07
• Last Update Submitted: 2011-08-04
• Last Update Posted: 2011-08-05

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 1464

Inclusion Criteria

• Every patient younger than 18 years old that presents to the ED will be eligible except for those that need to go directly to the resuscitation room (triage level 1)

Exclusion Criteria

• For ethical reasons, patients that need an immediate treatment will not be recruited in the study.
• Patients for whom an informed consent could not be obtained (example: insurmountable language barriers) will not be included.

Study & Design

• Study Type: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Design: Not specified

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
The inter-rater agreement between the two nurses measured by the weighted Kappa score	15 minutes
The correlation between triage level and the hospitalisation rate	1 day

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
The correlation between triage level and admission to the intensive care unit	1 day
The correlation between triage level and length of stay in the ED after being seen by a physician	1 day
The correlation between triage level and resources use	1 day

Trial Locations

Locations (9)

CHU Sainte-Justine; 🇨🇦 Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Stollery Children's Hospital; 🇨🇦 Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

The Hospital for Sick Children; 🇨🇦 Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Children's Hospital of Western Ontario; 🇨🇦 London, Ontario, Canada

Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario; 🇨🇦 Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Centre hospitalier de l'Université Laval; 🇨🇦 Quebec, Canada

Alberta Children's Hospital; 🇨🇦 Calgary, Alberta, Canada

IWK Heath Centre; 🇨🇦 Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

BC Children's and Women's Hospital; 🇨🇦 Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada