• Damian Roland and Gary Geelhoed.
• Emergency Department, Leicester Royal Infirmary, Leicester UK and Emergency Department, Princess Margaret Hospital for Children, Perth, Australia. damos@doctors.net.uk
• Pediatr Emerg Care. 2008 Mar 1;24(3):125-9.

ObjectivesTo examine whether children in the same triage category presenting to a tertiary paediatric emergency department are more likely to be admitted to hospital if their wait is longer.MethodsRetrospectively during a 7-year period, we determined the admission rate of children with lower acuity triage scores and compared 3 groups; those seen in their recommended triage time (group A), those seen under twice their recommended time (group B), and those seen in over twice their recommended time (group C).ResultsPatients in groups B and C were less likely to be admitted for both triage categories 3 and 4 compared with group A (P < 0.005 for all admission rate comparisons). This held true in individual diagnostic groups.ConclusionsPredictably, but reassuringly, those patients waiting longer than the recommended category time are no more likely to get admitted and do not represent a grossly different subset of patients in terms of age and diagnosis. Further work is needed to identify, at the point of triage, the characteristics of children who are unlikely to deteriorate during their wait.

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