Exploration of group technology applications: Triage in the emergency department

Emergency Departments (EDs) provide a multitude of services and treatment options to variable and increasing demand. Therefore, EDs are usually crowded, leading to long waiting times and lower patient satisfaction that may have adverse effects on the entire hospital. Decision-making is a critical part of the triage process as it helps to improve the productivity as well as reduce waiting times for patients in need of immediate medical attention. Hospitals utilize triage algorithms in order to rapidly sort incoming patients and group them based on the severity of their injury or illness. Group Technology (GT) is a management philosophy that improves manufacturing systems' efficiency and productivity by classifying individual parts into part families. This paper is a part of an ongoing research that seeks to develop a framework for the definition and the identification of patient groups in EDs using GT; it aims to identify the important patient characteristics and system requirements that will be utilized by GT. Informed by the research presented in the paper, utilization of GT algorithms will result in a scientific basis for making an informed and logical decision for patient classification.