• Nermin Ersoy and Aslihan Akpinar.
• Department of History of Medicine & Medical Ethics, Faculty of Medicine, Kocaeli University, Kocaeli, Turkey.
• Ulus Travma Acil Cer. 2010 May 1; 16 (3): 203-9.

BackgroundWe aimed to examine the accuracy of triage decision-making among emergency physicians, using a multiple casualty scenario. This will assist in determining the necessity of triage training, which is the foundation of emergency medical ethics.MethodsA self-administered questionnaire including a multiple casualty scenario requiring each casualty to be prioritized for treatments by Simple Triage and Rapid Treatment (START) was given to 110 emergency physicians working at pre-hospital and hospital emergency services in Kocaeli. The differences between personal/professional characteristics and triage decisions were analyzed using chi-square test.ResultsAccurate triage decision rates of the emergency physicians ranged from 83.6% to 90.0% for four immediate casualties, 26.4% to 78.2% for seven urgent casualties, 70.9% to 91.8% for four delayed casualties, and 82.7% to 97.3% for two dead cases. Personal and professional characteristics were found to be statistically significant in five cases (p<0.05).ConclusionThis study showed that emergency physicians tended to under-triage patients. This result and the discrepancy of the accuracy rates in urgent casualties revealed the necessity for improvement in medical-ethical decision-making in the training programs. This improvement will help in reducing violation of the important duties of justice and of do no harm by the emergency physicians.

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