Hospital installs new system in emergency dept

Australian College of Emergency Medicine emergency nurse specialists Leigh Elton (third form left) and Sarah Bornstein explaining how the Interagency Integrated Triage Tool system can be used to serve patients in Port Moresby General Hospital yesterday. – Nationalpic by KENNEDY BANI

By KELVIN JOE
PATIENTS seeking emergency medical attention in Port Moresby General Hospital (PMGH) will be served efficiently through an improved system, a doctor says.
During the launch of the Interagency Integrated Triage Tool (IITT) system in PMGH yesterday, assistant coordinator Dr Duncan Sengiromo said the emergency department would be better equipped to deal with the increasing number of patients every day.
He said IITT was a system for organising patients at the emergency department (depending on their condition) to attend to them efficiently.
“We receive and see a lot of patients every day not only from National Capital District (NCD), Central and Gulf but the entire country,” he said.
Dr Sengiromo said the 2020 data showed that about 120 patients came for referrals and treatment daily which added up to 39,000 patients annually.
He said the hospital would not serve patients on a first-come, first-serve basis but rather treat them on how critical their condition was.
Chief of Emergency Medicine Dr Sam Yockopua said the department had been working to address the issue of overcrowding, cleanliness and cooling for the last 20 years.
According to the hospital, the IITT system categorises patients into three groups: the first group is for emergency patients who require immediate treatment within five minutes; the second group of patients were priority cases to be served within 30 minutes, and; the third group of patients were non-urgent patients that could be served within two hours.