RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Simple, fast and affordable triaging pathway for COVID-19
JF Postgraduate Medical Journal
JO Postgrad Med J
FD The Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine
SP 192
OP 195
DO 10.1136/postgradmedj-2020-138029
VO 97
IS 1145
A1 Elizabeth Jane Eggleton
YR 2021
UL http://pmj.bmj.com/content/97/1145/192.abstract
AB Coronavirus disease 2019 has caused a global pandemic. The majority of patients will experience mild disease, but others will develop a severe respiratory infection that requires hospitalisation. This is causing a significant strain on health services. Patients are presenting at emergency departments with symptoms of dyspnoea, dry cough and fever with varying severity. The appropriate triaging of patients will assist in preventing health services becoming overwhelmed during the pandemic. This is assisted through clinical assessment and various imaging and laboratory investigations, including chest X-ray, blood analysis and identification of viral infection with SARS-CoV-2. Here, a succinct triaging pathway that aims to be fast, reliable and affordable is presented. The hope is that such a pathway will assist health services in appropriately combating the pandemic.