This is Care Opinion [siteRegion]. Did you want Care Opinion [usersRegionBasedOnIP]?
Care Opinion

Triage level - was it appropriate?

Posted By librazs88

"Triage level - was it appropriate?"

About: Kalgoorlie Health Campus / Emergency Department

(as a parent/guardian),

My very young child old fell and hit their head on a bed frame causing a split near their eye that bled profusely. Because they were hysterical and for the bleeding, I called an ambulance as I didn't feel able to safely get to the ED. 

The ambulance crew were great and I didn't feel like we had made a bad call.

At hospital, we were handed over and a nurse took my child to get a Bandaid. I questioned whether a sticky Bandaid was going to be a good idea as pulling it off would be upsetting and I didn't anticipate a 3½ hr wait to have it glued.

I wasn't told what level of triage we were. We were ushered to the waiting room with 10 or so other cases waiting so I realised it might be a long wait. As I understand it, there were 4 level 3 triage and 3 level 4 triage and 2 level 5. These increased and decreased until I finally realised, because everyone was gone, we were a level 4 (I believe classed as non-urgent). In the meantime, I had to ask for something to clean up the blood that had overfilled the Bandaid and was upsetting my child as it ran down their cheek.

The triage nurse (not who originally entered us) was good, helping clean it up a bit and apologised for the use of the bandaid.

I don't understand why it was classed as a level 4. My child's shirt had blood all over it, blood still covered their face and ear, the cut had to be glued closed to finally stop the bleeding/oozing blood. My child has mild haemophilia so I was trying to do the right thing, I couldn't glue it at home, possibly I could have steri-stitched it myself but it was still a head blow/injury.

I feel and felt upset after 2½ hrs of waiting and my child's distress. I felt that we were not taken seriously by the person who entered our case from the paramedic. I'm not stupid, I wouldn't come for a scratch. It was a deep laceration that needed attention I couldn't give at home or wait to see a GP for the next day. Surely this would make it at least semi-urgent?

More about:
Do you have a similar story to tell? Tell your story & make a difference ››

Responses

Response from Peter Tredinnick, Executive Director, Regional Office, WACHS Goldfields 2 years ago
Peter Tredinnick
Executive Director, Regional Office,
WACHS Goldfields

Executive Director WACHS Goldfields

Submitted on 20/10/2021 at 10:48 AM
Published on Care Opinion at 10:48 AM

picture of Peter Tredinnick

Dear librazs88,

Thank you for providing your feedback about your recent experience when attending the Kalgoorlie Hospital Emergency Department with your young child. It is important to me that should the need arise all community members feel comfortable to call an ambulance to take them to the Emergency Department to seek treatment. If you felt this was the safest decision at the time, then I agree that you made the right choice.

I was very sorry to read about your experience and how you were left feeling like you were not taken seriously. I can assure you this is not how we would like any of our patients or their family to feel and I appreciate you raising these issues so that I can address them with our Emergency Department staff, and to hopefully provide you with some reassurance about bringing your child to hospital.

It is concerning that your child was only initially offered a bandaid to dress their wound when they had blood running down their face and I’m sorry for any further distress that this caused. However, I am very happy to hear that one of our nurses assisted you with cleaning your child’s face and apologised to you for this. I would like you to know that we will undertake education with the triage staff to improve our service.

The Emergency Department use the triage system to make complex assessments about a person’s presenting condition, whilst also considering many other factors, such as the patient’s observations and any risk of loss of consciousness. This is to ensure any life-threatening conditions are dealt with as a priority. Bleeding is a serious presentation, particularly as you have mentioned your child has a bleeding disorder. I can further investigate the circumstances at the time you presented to the ED to determine other factors that may have contributed to the delay in your child’s treatment and if you would like this to occur, I encourage you to contact Mr Scott Jones, who is the Operations Manager at Kalgoorlie Hospital on 9080 5817.

We do know that parents are often aware- even before clinical staff- of changes in their child’s health and for this reason we certainly don’t want parents to ever feel as though they aren’t heard or taken seriously when they have concerns. For this reason, I would like you to know that we have an escalation process in place to support patients and families to call for assistance if they felt that the healthcare team has not fully recognised the change in the patient’s health condition. This process is called Aishwarya’s CARE Call. We also have recently placed this information throughout the waiting room areas in Kalgoorlie Hospital, so parents are aware of this escalation process if it’s needed.

I do hope that the above information has been able to address your concerns and I am very happy to hear that the treatment, once your child was seen, was effective. Thank you for taking the time to write to me and I hope that your child is recovering well from their injury.

Kind regards

Peter Tredinnick

Regional Director

WACHS Goldfields

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful

Update posted by librazs88 (a parent/guardian)

Thank you for your response Peter.

I appreciate the details for following the case further. At this stage I'm not sure whether to. I believe the assessment was made by an individual as opposed to a systemic issue.

I have not had trouble with emergency visits before. My only concern would be whether there is an inconsistent approach to triage when brought in via ambulance, that is - is the triage performed by the same triage staff and procedure as the front entrance?

I wonder too if a triage assessment can be upgraded or reassessed if its recognised as inappropriate?

I will try and be brave to use the Aishwarya’s CARE Call in the future if I'm concerned.

As I said, or tried to, I felt the treating staff were great and cared for my child well.

Opinions
Next Response j
Previous Response k