Which triage category patients die in hospital after being admitted through emergency departments? A study in one teaching hospital

Objectives: To quantify the number of deaths per triage category (scale 1–5, Australian National Triage Scale) occurring after admission to hospital via an emergency department and to examine the causes of death in each category. Setting: St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne (Victoria, Australia) is an acute adult tertiary referral hospital. Methods: Electronic collection of all hospital admissions and their subsequent destination for the calendar year 1997, with chart and/or postmortem review to determine the cause of death. Results: The percentage of deaths per triage group decreased with urgency. Numerically, the largest group of all admissions and admissions followed by deaths consist of patients presenting in category 4 (semi‐urgent). Conclusions: Triage categories may be a useful tool for prioritizing acute patients, but patients in low triage categories often have fatal illnesses. Performance measurements and workload assessments for emergency departments may need to involve category 4 patients to take account of this factor.