An audit of triage within a UK district g eneral hospital surgical r eceiving u nit

1. An audit of triage within a UK district general hospital surgical receiving unit Smith L, Tyler S The Royal Cornwall Hospital, Truro, Cornwall TR1 3LJ Introduction: The Royal Cornwall Hospital is a DGH serving a population of over 420,000. All surgical emergency admissions are admitted via a 29-bedded unit. Standard: Trust policy states that no patient should wait longer than 30 minutes for nurse led triage Our objective was to assess whether patients were triaged in a timely fashion • Methods: • 7 consecutive days of admissions were audited. Time taken to obtain the first set of observations on the unit was recorded • Re-audit of another 7-day period occurred 6 months later Results: Proportion of patients being triaged within 30 min Interventions • Presentation • Education of nursing staff and junior doctors • Adjusted admission protocol • MEWS column on expected board • Conclusions: • The proportion of patients being triaged within 30 minutes has almost doubled • Significant changes can be made by involving the MDT and making simple adjustments • More radical changes are needed for further progression • As a direct result of this audit we have secured a healthcare assistant dedicated to triage • On- going work is needed to continue education of the ever changing MDT