From triage to treatment of severe abdominal pain in the emergency department: evaluating the implementation of the emergency severity index.

摘要

Pain is the most common reason patients present to the emergency department and accounts for up to 78% of visits.1 Patients who report severe pain often experience long wait times before receiving treatment. It has been found that management of pain in the emergency department can be suboptimal, with associated patient dissatisfaction as a result.2 This deficiency in pain management is often due to a delay in the provision of treatment. Results of a multi-center study revealed that of patients who received analgesia, only 29% were medicated within 1 hour, with a mean time from triage to analgesia of 90 minutes. Patients presenting in triage with severe abdominal pain (described as 8 or higher out of 10 on the 0- to 10-point pain scale) are among those who experience time delays to treatment. An effective triage system should identify patients in need of prompt assessment and quickly direct them to appropriate resources.