Introduction
In a hospital setting, patients often arrive in various conditions. It is up to the nurses and other medical staffs to ensure the triage process is carried out successfully. The process of grouping patients on the basis of their conditions is often referred to as the triage process (Thomas, 2001). Triage is a simple process and involves careful observation of the patients as he or she arrives and the symptoms he or she presents so as to gauge clinically if he or she needs medical attention immediately or not (Donald, 2004). This process has to be effective at all times (Ian, 2000).
Explanation of the diagram
Any person working in the hospital is expected to have the knowledge of conducting a triage as it done continuously. In conducting a triage, patients are usually grouped into: Black, green, white, red and yellow based on their presenting conditions (Ian, 2000). Those patients coded black are often those who arrive in the hospital severely injured (Ian, 2000). There injuries are often bad to the extent of them dying due to them. Such patients encompass victims with large area burns, those with severe trauma, cardiac arrest, lethal radiation dose, septic shock etcetera. Identifying and managing such patients is often a crucial process and requires minimum delay (Ian, 2000).
The patients grouped in red category are often the ones that require immediate attention like for instance immediate surgery or provision of life saving interventions. In short, there are supposed to be given first priority and accorded immediate treatment. This process is often made efficient in hospitals through proper training of medical staffs to identify such patients (Ian, 2000).
Triage also groups patients in the yellow category based on certain features. Patients that have been grouped yellow are often in a stable condition at that given moment of assessment, though are not supposed to be ignored, but watched frequently. A proper trained medical staff should always ensure such patients are under scrutiny so as not to have some of them relapsing to red (Ian, 2000).
In the triage process, the patients coded green are often those who arrive walking to the hospital though wounded. This category of patients does not require that immediate treatment like the red grouped patients (Donna, 2000). They are supposed to wait for hours as the medical staff serves those who require immediate treatment first.
The last category in the triage process is those grouped as white. These patients often arrive walking though wounded and present with minor injuries that at sometimes may require first aid or home care. Such patients do not require urgent care, and if not attended to, may return the next day (Donna, 2000).
Effectiveness of the work flow
The triage process as described in the work flow diagram above is not an effective process as there are a number of flaws. The triage process normally is supposed to take a short duration of time and to enhance service delivery at all times amidst a large population of patients (Donald, 2004).
Areas that need improvement
In the triage process, a number of areas can be introduced to make it efficient. Communication is usually a vital process in the triage process (Donald, 2004). Paramedics can often be impacted with the knowledge of identifying patients in the categories black and red to make sorting faster (Donald, 2004). In addition, paramedics can telephone nurses and provide a brief history about that patient and the nurse can triage in advance before arrival. Through telephoning nurses would help in hastening the registration process of patients in the red category making them able to get emergency treatment (Donald, 2004).
Summary
Work flows often provide a process in which a given work is performed and provides means of identifying areas that are not that important in the process (Thomas, 2001). It enables one to become more effective in a given work area too. In the work flow chart above, the process has been discussed fully, and its effectiveness assessed (Thomas, 2001). Lastly, areas that need improvement have been identified and appropriate improvements suggested.
References
Donald Lighter, D. C. (2004). Quality Management in Health Care: Principles and Methods.
New York: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Donna Ojanen Thomas, L. M. (2000). Core Curriculum for Pediatric Emergency Nursing.
New York: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Ian Greaves, K. P. (2000). Emergency Care: A Textbook for Paramedics. New York: Elsevier
Health Sciences.
Thomas, S. (2001). Successfully Managing Change in Organizations: A User's Guide. New
York : Industrial Press Inc.
WORK FLOW CHART ON TRIAGE
