ABSTRACT BACKGROUND:

Healthcare institutions are confronted with large numbers of patient admissions during large-scale or long-term public health emergencies like pandemics. Appropriate and effective triage is needed for effective resource use.

OBJECTIVES:

To evaluate the effectiveness of the Pandemic Medical Early Warning Score (PMEWS), Simple Triage Scoring System (STSS) and Confusion, Uremia, Respiratory rate, Blood pressure and age ≥ 65 years (CURB-65) score in an emergency department (ED) triage setting.

DESIGN AND SETTING:

Retrospective study in the ED of a tertiary-care university hospital in Düzce, Turkey.

METHODS:

PMEWS, STSS and CURB-65 scores of patients diagnosed with COVID-19 pneumonia were calculated. Thirty-day mortality, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, mechanical ventilation (MV) need and outcomes were recorded. The predictive accuracy of the scores was assessed using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis.

RESULTS:

One hundred patients with COVID-19 pneumonia were included. The 30-day mortality was 6%. PMEWS, STSS and CURB-65 showed high performance for predicting 30-day mortality (area under the curve: 0.968, 0.962 and 0.942, respectively). Age > 65 years, respiratory rate > 20/minute, oxygen saturation (SpO2) < 90% and ED length of stay > 4 hours showed associations with 30-day mortality (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS:

CURB-65, STSS and PMEWS scores are useful for predicting mortality, ICU admission and MV need among patients diagnosed with COVID-19 pneumonia. Advanced age, increased respiratory rate, low SpO2 and prolonged ED length of stay may increase mortality. Further studies are needed for developing the triage scoring systems, to ensure effective long-term use of healthcare service capacity during pandemics.