NCT05765045

A Nursing Triage Protocol for Minor Orthopedic Traumata: the Effect on Flow Time, Quality of Care and Patient Satisfaction in an Emergency Department

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 220 (actual)
• Sponsor: Universiteit Antwerpen · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

In 2019, nearly half of all hospital contacts in Belgium took place through the emergency department, and more than a third of patients arrived after an accident or trauma. In instances of overcrowding, patients with minor orthopedic injuries face prolonged waiting times. Previous studies have shown that implementing triage protocols for medical imaging conducted by a triage nurse can reduce the Total Length of Stay (TLOS) for this patient group. This is a single-center, unblinded, randomized, controlled trial that aims to evaluate the impact of a nurse triage protocol on turnaround time (primary outcome), quality of care, and patient satisfaction. The study population consists of adults who present with minor orthopedic injuries below the elbow or knee and have an Emergency Severity Index (ESI) of 4 or 5. Participants are randomly assigned to either the 'nurse triage protocol' group (n=110) or the 'usual care' group (n=110).

Conditions

• Trauma Injury

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DIAGNOSTIC_TEST	Nursing triage protocol	Medically approved and supervised standing order that allows trained ER nurses to start medical imaging (RX) for adult patients with minor traumata to the limbs.

Timeline

• Start date: 2023-03-06
• Primary completion: 2023-04-23
• Completion: 2023-04-23
• First posted: 2023-03-13
• Last updated: 2023-07-03

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Belgium