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Advanced triage protocols in the emergency department: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract Objective To evaluate the effectiveness of using advanced triage protocols on the length of stay, safety and satisfaction of the patients and professionals in the emergency department. Method A systematic review with meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials included in the Embase, BVS, PubMed, CINAHL, Cochrane Library databases and in the gray literature, using Review Manager 5.4. Studies that analyzed length of stay in their outcomes were included and the studies excluded were those that considered other triage protocols. Results 26,672 peer-reviewed studies were found and ten were included in the meta-analysis. For the patients’ length of stay, seven studies were included in the meta-analysis (n=8,229), showing a 36-minute reduction (-0.36[-0.55;-0.17] p=0.002), a result with low certainty of evidence, favorable to the intervention, varying between -0.53 (-0.81;- 0.25) and -0.29 (-0.50;-0.07) in the analysis of the subgroups. Regarding the exams requested, five studies were included (n=2,270), indicating that there is no significant difference between the groups (odds ratio 0.94 [0.64;1.38]). Four studies (n=6,094) analyzed the patients’ and the professionals’ satisfaction, indicating a favorable result to the intervention. Conclusion The advanced triage protocol reduced length of stay in the emergency room without compromising care safety and quality, although more randomized clinical studies on the theme are needed. Registered in PROSPERO (CRD42019142640).