Introduction: Many emergency departments use validated triage tools. It is currently undocumented if such a practice is common in Danish medical admission units (MAU). The current study was conducted in order to clarify this.
Material and methods: Questionnaire survey with data collected from the intern on call at the medical departments of all Danish hospitals listed on sundhed.dk.
Results: We received 87 answers from 60 individual MAUs covered by a total of 83 interns on call. The MAUs had a median of eight beds and 14 admissions a day. An intern was on call 24 hours a day at 95% of the MAUs. At 87% of the MAUs, a doctor was contacted by the admitting physician, while the contact was the responsibility of a nurse in 13% of MAUs. None of the contacted MAUs used a validated triage tool and 95% answered that they triaged on the basis of individual clinical assessment of patients. However, 22% answered that selected groups of patients were routinely assessed by a senior physician.
Conclusion: None of the Danish MAUs uses a validated triage tool to prioritize acutely admitted medical patients.