Accuracy of nurses' performance in triage using the emergency severity index and its relationship with clinical outcome measures.

Emergency Department (ED) triage in hospitals is part of their emergency structure carried out by nurses in emergency units. There have not been many studies available on nurses' performance in triage based on the Emergency Severity Index (ESI). This present study aimed to investigate the nurses' performance in triage with regard to the ESI and its relation to clinical outcome measures in the emergency department. This was a cross-sectional study. The hospitalization record of 600 patients who arrived at the emergency department of Sanandaj Social Security Hospital was randomly assessed based on the accuracy of triage performed by nurses. The data analysis procedure was done by employing STATA software version 12, as well as Fisher's exact test, independent t-test, and one-way ANOVA. Findings of the study revealed that nurses' overall performance in triage showed that 82.67% of nurses had perfect triage accuracy, 12.17% had lowlevel triage accuracy and 5.17% had high-level triage accuracy. There was an association between nurses' performance in triage with disposition of patients (p=0.029) and length of stay (p=0.009). Results of the study showed the acceptable performance of emergency nurses in triage using the ESI and provided a foundation for identifying effective factors for decreasing the length of stay and disposition of patients in emergency care units. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]