Repeatability of the Manchester Triage System for children.

OBJECTIVE: The authors aimed to assess the repeatability of the Manchester Triage System (MTS) in children.

METHODS: All emergency department nurses (n=43) from a general teaching hospital and a university children's hospital in The Netherlands triaged 20 written case scenarios using the Manchester Triage system. Second, at two emergency departments (EDs), real-life simultaneous triage of patients (<16 years) was performed by ED nurses and two research nurses. The written case scenarios and the patients included in the real-life simultaneous triage study were representative of children attending the ED, in age, problem and urgency level. The authors assessed inter-rater agreement using quadratic weighted kappa values.

RESULTS: The weighted kappa between the nurses, triaging the case scenarios, was 0.83 (95% CI 0.74 to 0.91). In total, 88% (N=198) of the eligible ED patients were triaged simultaneously, with a weighted kappa of 0.65 (95% CI 0.56 to 0.72).

CONCLUSIONS: The MTS showed good to very good repeatability in paediatric emergency care.