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The Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale for Children; A Prospective Multi-Center Evaluation. (PERC CTAS)

This study has been completed.
Sponsor:
Collaborators:
SickKids Foundation
Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
Information provided by:
St. Justine's Hospital
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
NCT00807352
First received: December 10, 2008
Last updated: August 4, 2011
Last verified: July 2011
History of Changes
  Purpose

The aim of this study is to evaluate the validity and the reproducibility of the canadian triage and acuity scale when applied by regular nurses for the triage of children in the Emergency Department.


Condition
Triage
Pediatrics

Study Type: Observational
Study Design: Observational Model: Cohort
Time Perspective: Prospective
Official Title: The Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale for Children; A Prospective Multi-Center Evaluation.

Further study details as provided by St. Justine's Hospital:

Primary Outcome Measures:
  • The inter-rater agreement between the two nurses measured by the weighted Kappa score [ Time Frame: 15 minutes ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  • The correlation between triage level and the hospitalisation rate [ Time Frame: 1 day ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]

Secondary Outcome Measures:
  • The correlation between triage level and admission to the intensive care unit [ Time Frame: 1 day ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  • The correlation between triage level and length of stay in the ED after being seen by a physician [ Time Frame: 1 day ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  • The correlation between triage level and resources use [ Time Frame: 1 day ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]

Enrollment: 1464
Study Start Date: April 2009
Study Completion Date: March 2011
Primary Completion Date: March 2011 (Final data collection date for primary outcome measure)
Groups/Cohorts
level 2
Patients triaged level 2
level 3
patients triaged level 3
level 4
patients triaged level 4
level 5
patients triaged level 5

Detailed Description:

The role of triage in the Emergency Department (ED) is to assign high priority to patients who need urgent care while identifying patients that may be able to wait safely. The Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale (CTAS) is a triage tool constructed from a consensus of experts that is universally used in Canada. Until now, there has been no evaluation of the validity of the tool for children in a clinical context. Also, its inter-rater reproducibility has not been evaluated. The expected implementation of a revised version of the Canadian triage tool in 2008 would be an ideal moment to evaluate its validity and reproducibility. Specific objective: 1. To evaluate the validity of the CTAS for children visiting a pediatric ED and 2. To measure the inter-rater agreement for nurses using the CTAS in these settings.

  Eligibility

Ages Eligible for Study:   up to 18 Years
Genders Eligible for Study:   Both
Accepts Healthy Volunteers:   Yes
Sampling Method:   Non-Probability Sample
Study Population

All children presenting to a pediatric emergency department

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Every patient younger than 18 years old that presents to the ED will be eligible except for those that need to go directly to the resuscitation room (triage level 1)

Exclusion Criteria:

  • For ethical reasons, patients that need an immediate treatment will not be recruited in the study.
  • Patients for whom an informed consent could not be obtained (example: insurmountable language barriers) will not be included.
  Contacts and Locations
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00807352

Locations
Canada, Alberta
Alberta Children's Hospital
Calgary, Alberta, Canada, T3B 6A8
Stollery Children's Hospital
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6G 2C8
Canada, British Columbia
BC Children's and Women's Hospital
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, V6H 3V4
Canada, Nova Scotia
IWK Heath Centre
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, B3K 6R8
Canada, Ontario
Children's Hospital of Western Ontario
London, Ontario, Canada, N6A 4G5
Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1H 8L1
The Hospital for Sick Children
Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5G 1X8
Canada, Quebec
CHU Sainte-Justine
Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3T 1C5
Canada
Centre hospitalier de l'Université Laval
Quebec, Canada, G1V 4G2
Sponsors and Collaborators
St. Justine's Hospital
SickKids Foundation
Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
Investigators
Principal Investigator: Jocelyn Gravel, MD St. Justine's Hospital
  More Information

Publications:

Additional publications automatically indexed to this study by ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier (NCT Number):

Responsible Party: Jocelyn Gravel, MD, MSC, CHU Sainte-Justine
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00807352     History of Changes
Other Study ID Numbers: PERC CTAS, Grant No. XG09-049R
Study First Received: December 10, 2008
Last Updated: August 4, 2011
Health Authority: Canada: Ethics Review Committee
Canada: Health Canada

Keywords provided by St. Justine's Hospital:
Triage
Pediatrics
Emergency Department

ClinicalTrials.gov processed this record on June 18, 2013