Developing a correction factor to modify the FAHP and utility theory based triage algorithm

Triage is a pre-hospital decision making process which involves assigning a priority level for coming patients to emergency departments (EDs). The accuracy of assessing patient acuity and the prioritization of patient flow are the central issues in triage process. Inaccurate and/or inefficient triage might affect the patient safety and/or waiting times (e.g., increasing waiting time for patients with critical status or decreasing it for non-urgent patient). In order to improve the decision making in healthcare systems, many researchers have implemented different tools and models from various fields. In a previous study, we used the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) and utility theory to rank patients based on the following attributes: chief complaint, vital signs, age, gender, and pain level. In this paper, a modification for the FAHP and utility theory model has been proposed. The modification involves developing of a correction factor that adjusts the priority of the patient based on the estimated average length of time the patient remains urgent when he becomes urgent given his chief complaint. The average length of time will be estimated based on the patient's status sample path. A hypothetical example is used to illustrate the proposed method.