The Concept of Quality in the Emergency Department (ED). Development of a Theoretical Model of Triage and Computer Science Impact
Abstract
Introduction: The effort of the Emergency Department to operate as an independent department within the hospital by providing quality services emphasizes the proper organization to achieve the required speed of incident handling. An important factor in this effort is the electronic interconnection of the partner departments and entities, as well as the implementation of a sorting system (TRIAGE). It is clear that the information system applied to the other departments of each hospital cannot function in the specificity of ICTs. Purpose: Description of the concept of quality of care and the respective quality indicators as well as the description of the impact of triage and information technology on the quality of services provided in the emergency department. Material and Method: The existing literature was reviewed by searching and collecting material in online databases such as Medline. Published research studies and articles in authored specialized journals were included. The following keywords were used in the international bibliography investigation process: "Emergency Room/ Department", "triage", "quality" and "computing/ informatics". Results: Quality is an important parameter in the provision of health services and especially in the Emergency Department (ER) which is, in most cases, the first contact of patients with the health system and especially the hospital. Improved quality in ER is possible through the use of appropriate triage systems and specialized information systems. An important step is the measurement of quality by using specialized quality indicators in the ER. Conclusions: It is necessary to offer quality services to the ER. From this it is concluded that a modern triage information system needs to be implemented. Various two- to five-level sorting systems are used internationally. Unfortunately, Greece is far behind in this area due to lack of organization and financial crisis.
