Latest update April 7th, 2025 6:08 AM
Auditing of Triage system commences at GPHC – Dr Rambaran
With the intent of determining the impact of the triage process at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), mechanisms have been put in place to carry out continuous audits of the crucial course of action.
According to Director of Medical and Professional Services at the public health facility, Dr Madan Rambaran, this development has become essential in order to monitor and evaluate the current triage system. Through collaboration with the Vanderbilt University Medical Centre of Tennessee, United States, staffers of the GPHC were exposed to triage training during the latter part of last year.
Dr Madan Rambaran
Triage is the sole process by which a health professional is able to categorise the urgency of a patient’s medical needs in order to direct them to proper medical care. And in recognition of the fact that making such a determination has its peculiarities in the Accident and Emergency Unit (A&E), Dr Rambaran noted that the Triage Course was seen as very essential.
He disclosed during a recent interview that although the staffers’ ability to implement what they have learnt is yet in the early stage, efforts have already been engaged to determine if there has been an improvement in the system. “It is not that we didn’t have a triage system before but triage itself is a complex science and so we continue to strengthen it by having continuous training for our staff,” Dr Rambaran asserted.
He related that since the recent training course concluded there have been at least two significant developments in the triage area. If a patient is deemed non-urgent upon his or her arrival at the hospital, Dr Rambaran disclosed that there is now a process in place which will assess that patient’s condition on a continuous basis. “We now have a schedule by which patients will be relooked at to ascertain if their triage level has changed. So if a patient comes in with abdominal pains and the first level of triage is not so serious they will be checked again to determine if their condition has improved or worsen at which point it becomes urgent,” the doctor noted.
Moreover, he underscored that the hospital has been intently auditing works in the Emergency Unit in terms of time of arrival, time patients are seen first by the Triage Nurse and then by a doctor. “We have been auditing these times and on average our numbers are not bad but I have to emphasise there are always the exceptional cases where patients fall through the cracks.”
“Some would indeed be correct to say, ‘I spent eight hours there and did not get the right and correct attention’. But those examples are getting fewer and fewer because on average we are doing a better job,” Dr Rambaran assured.
According to Dr Navindranauth Rambaran, head of the hospital’s A&E Unit, at the point of care, patients are seen on a continuous basis and their progress and deterioration is recorded on their charts. This, he said, is done even after measures of intervention are administered to patients.
“Strict documentation is something that is mandated and must be done by the doctors, and patients who are waiting to be seen by doctors are continually reassessed while they are waiting,” the A&E head stated.
In essence, he noted that a patient who is deemed an urgent or non-urgent patient when they arrive in the triage area will not prevent them from being assessed and monitored continually.
In order to further improve the service offered, Dr Rambaran said that focus will be on nursing care and medical care in the Emergency Room. He added that the recent Triage Care Course was only a minute component in the quest to achieve this objective.
Some of the bigger ideas he said will include the introduction of a Post Graduate Nurse Training for Emergency Care and a Post Graduate Doctor Training for Emergency Care.
These programmes, he disclosed will be centred at the GPHC and will be delivered by officials from Vanderbilt, hopefully by September this year. At the moment, Dr Rambaran revealed that certain approvals and accreditations are being sought even as a curriculum is being developed.
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