Journal of emergency nursing : JEN : official publication of the Emergency Department Nurses Association
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There is a growing number of mental health illnesses (MHIs) in the nation and no standardization of the medical screening examination (MSE) in the emergency department. Many health care organizations are at the tipping point of discarding a battery of laboratory workups. A triage tool-specific to psychiatric chief complaints and cost effective-is needed for the emergency department. ⋯ The results of this project represent a valuable step forward in improving the triage of adult patients who present to the emergency department with psychiatric chief complaints. A reproducible study of the TAPS method was the next practice step in determining feasibility. Use of the TAPS tool can be a method to decease costs and ED crowding. For research and quality improvement projects in the future, addiction chief complaints should be treated as a separate category from psychiatric or medical complaints, as they meet the criteria of both.