Triage is a way of sorting and prioritizing patients who come to the emergency room.
It is the assessment that forms the basis for what efforts are made and what monitoring one should have.
- Those who have a high priority are with us all the time and those who have a lower priority we try to look at at least every four hours, explains Bodil Palm, operations manager at the emergency room in Sundsvall.
Understand the anxiety
As for Karin Wassman in Sundsvall who sought care for an allergic situation and was not monitored for just over three hours, she sees nothing deviating in it.
- I understand that you can get worried but it does not sound like there is anything strange in the handling.
We are keeping a close eye on patients who are at risk of deteriorating.
Those who do not have that monitoring are the patients where there is no risk of getting worse while waiting.
Staffs despite vacancies
The emergency room in Sundsvall does have 16 vacant nurse positions, but still gets the schedule together.
- We cover this with hired staff and overtime shifts on our own staff so the staffing per shift is good.
Clearer communication
She may need to review communication with patients, she admits.
- We try to inform but it can definitely be the case that we do not reach all the time.
Did the patient who went to the emergency room do the right thing?
- Since we judged that she would remain, I absolutely believe that she did the right thing.