Pediatric Korean Triage and Acuity Scale

Abstract

Symptoms and signs of childhood disease are different according to age. Initial assessment process in emergency department should consider a broad presentation of illness and injuries of pediatric patients. In 2012, the Korean Society of Emergency Medicine developed the Korean Triage and Acuity Scale (KTAS) by expert consultation including a survey to emergency physicians, nurses, and emergency medical technicians based on the Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale. KTAS research group performed the analysis of distribution of pediatric populations by KTAS classification in 8 hospitals and showed the correlation with the disposition results with KTAS scores in 2014. KTAS could improve the patient safety by the real-time scoring of severity in pediatric patients. KTAS would generate important data for distributing patients to the less crowded emergency departments in near future.

Keywords

• emergency medical services
• child
• korea
• triage
• patient safety