Validity and Reliability of the Transport Triage Tool.

BACKGROUND: Standards for interfacility transport in the United States recommend that each transport request be triaged to ensure that each patient is transported by an appropriate mechanism and by the appropriate clinicians in order to meet the patient's intratransport needs. No instrument currently exists to meet that need. The Transport Triage Tool, a novel instrument, has been designed to determine the clinician (paramedic, registered nurse, or advanced practice registered nurse) who will best meet the patient's needs during transport.

OBJECTIVE: To assess psychometric elements-that is, validity and reliability-of the Transport Triage Tool when used by health care professionals in determining which clinician is appropriate for interfacility transport.

METHODS: A 3-step process was used to initially evaluate the reliability and validity of this tool when assigning a lead clinician during transport. Content and predictive validity were evaluated. Both intrarater and interrater agreement were used to examine reliability.

RESULTS: Predictive validity was supported by an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.847 and a Youden index of 0.31. Percentage agreement and Cohen κ were reasonable across all periods of testing.

CONCLUSIONS: The Transport Triage Tool has acceptable predictive validity and reliability; however, this preliminary evaluation indicates that further refinement is needed. Large tertiary centers that offer variations in transport team composition may be able to use the Tool in its present form to train and evaluate individuals who make decisions regarding interfacility transport, although additional testing and evaluation are recommended.