Queen's Hospital Burton's A&E department becomes UK's first to achieve accreditation for patient triage tool
The team at Queen's Hospital Burton's (QHB) A&E department has become the first in the country and one of two centres in the world to gain accreditation for their use of an innovative emergency department triage system.
The Manchester Triage System (MTS) provides clinicians with live, reliable information on patient acuity within the emergency department, which can help to support clinical decision making around which patients need to be prioritised first and to reinforce decisions around their care. In 2022 alone, the tool helped the team triage more than 77,000 patients - an average of 212 patients every day.
The digital system, which is used in more than 20 countries around the world and is one of the most widely used triage tools in Europe, records patients in a dashboard and colour-codes them based on the urgency of their condition. This provides clinicians with a visual aid and additional assurance when making decisions about which patients require care most urgently - which is particularly useful in an often busy and rapidly changing environment.
Eve Rushton, Lead Education Nurse in A&E at QHB, explained how the MTS works and how useful it is to clinicians in the department:
"The MTS helps us to identify how sick patients are when they present to A&E and how quickly our teams need to see them. The answers to the questions mean that each patient is 'colour coded' dependent on the severity of their condition.
"These range from red, meaning the patient requires immediate attention, all the way through to blue which indicates their condition does not require urgent care.
"This is really useful for colleagues and provides them with additional clinical evidence to reinforce their decision making and provide accurate clinical decisions, which means we can make sure the most timely and appropriate care is given to every patient, every time."
To gain the revered accreditation, the team has had to show high quality use of the tool across all criteria set out by MTS, which includes ensuring the MTS runs smoothly and seamlessly in the existing patient record system, having two trained instructors in the department to share learning and best practice with their colleagues, and have submitted regular audits to evidence the highest standards are being met consistently.
This was followed up by two visits to the department by the members of the MTS team in late 2022 and early 2023, who were satisfied the team was meeting all the requirements and awarded the prestigious accreditation status. 
Dr Arne Rose, Consultant in Emergency Medicine and UHDB's Deputy Medical Director, said:
"Having access to this tried and tested system is really beneficial and it provides everyone in the team with the reassurance that we are providing standardised triages for all of our patients attending A&E, regardless of the help they need - which should provide comfort to our patients, too.
"The MTS helps us as clinicians to manage and maintain the flow of patients through the department which is particularly helpful when the department is busy as it provides us with that extra layer of assurance.
"I am delighted that the team's hard work in implementing this system has been rewarded in this way. It is a real testament to their hard work and puts QHB and the Trust on the map in emergency department care."
The MTS is a clinical risk tool which was originally developed in 1994, and recent collaborative work by colleagues in A&E and Digital Services has introduced further improvements in the QHB system, making it more cohesive and user-friendly for colleagues.
Jessica Dutton, Clinical Systems Support Assistant, explained: "There has been so much change in A&E recently, so we worked on some improvements to streamline the system and make it as user friendly as possible before applying for accreditation - and we were absolutely delighted to find out we had achieved it. To be the first hospital in the UK to achieve this makes us all incredibly proud."
Dr Sreeman Andole, Interim Executive Medical Director at UHDB, added his praise to colleagues for achieving this prestigious accreditation: "I am delighted and very proud of the team for achieving this accreditation, which further highlights the amazing work our colleagues are doing every day.
"Providing safe and efficient care to patients in our emergency departments remains a priority for the Trust, and this is another example of how our teams continue to show their commitment to providing exceptional care to our communities and I am thrilled to see their hard work being recognised on such a grand scale."