Triage in an acute psychiatric ward Validation and adoption of the Face Triage Assessment

Spinogatti, F.; Agrimi, E.

Triage system is a management tool to select and organize the admission of patients in an emergency department according to the severity of disease. Italian national guidelines establish the use the triage system in emergency department. Psychiatric triage is useful also for admission of patients in acute psychiatric ward. Objective: Validation of the Italian version of the Face Triage Assessment and adoption in our acute psychiatric ward. Method: We trained psychiatric nurses to triage use with a structured package and carried out a validation study. We survey four months triage utilization. Results: The Face Triage Assessment is a tool with a very good inter-rater reliability, it allows the evaluation of priority and severity of clinical emergency and allows an easy transfer of information. Conclusions: The Face triage Assessment is a tool of easy use in the psychiatric service routine and is useful for accurate evaluation of patient clinical severity and appropriate planning of care.