An initiative aimed at improving triage practice and data collection at the Emergency Department of Port Moresby General Hospital was launched today by members of the Australian College of Emergency Medicine and staff of the hospital’s emergency department.
The Inter-agency Integrated Triage Tool is a revitalized practice to manage the admission of emergency patients into the hospital according to their degree of injury so as to provide an efficient and effective patient care.
Emergency Acting Coordinator Dr Duncan Sengiromo at the launch says POM Gen receives 120 emergency patients on average daily and attending to that number has been a huge challenge for decades.
However he says with this new practice, it will alleviate this issue for both the staff and patients.
The new practice categorizes patients into three categories of emergency, priority and non-urgent with colour codes as well displayed at the emergency department to distinguish them.
Chief Emergency Medicine Dr Sam Yockopua says the introduction of this new practice is very timely for the hospital that has been looking at different ways to address this issue as he called on all the parties involved to maintain the working partnership established.
The practice was implemented in 2019 at Gerehu and Mt Hagen General Hospitals respectively and has proven to be effective in patient’s care.