Identification and ranking of effective measures in the triage of psychiatric patients in Razi hospital in Tabriz based on Delphi technique

Abstract

Ranking and prioritization of mental patients, especially high-risk patients, is becoming the basis of treatment of mental patients. The triage plan requires treatment to select patients and divide them based on urgency. The purpose of this project is to provide a comprehensive model for prioritizing psychiatric patients in Razi Educational and Medical Center in Tabriz. Method: For this study, three steps were performed. In the first stage, the effective criteria in triage of psychiatric patients were examined and screened using the Delphi technique and the opinion of experts (questionnaire). In the second stage, the allocation of weights for the criteria obtained from the previous stage was performed using fuzzy hierarchical analysis method. In the third stage, the ranking of effective criteria in triage and the ranking of patients during the treatment process was performed using the fuzzy tybsis method.

Findings: After reviewing and analyzing the questionnaires from professors and experts in the field of psychiatry (10 people), the following criteria were obtained as effective cases in the triage unit in the emergency room: Triage physical space, triage equipment, manpower, security and protection, basic patient information, patient mental state (including physical, communicative, alert, language, form and content of judgmental thinking and perceptual state), psychiatric history, limitations and abilities , Fall risk assessment, screening and pain assessment, assessment of the need for social work services, risk of self-harm and others, religious and cultural values, information registration method and nutritional status. In the next section, the criteria for diagnosing each disorder (here as an example of major depressive disorder) were identified and weighed, and finally it was found that the weight of the diagnostic criteria are different. As a result, based on the type and severity of each patient's symptoms, the patients' rank for providing services was different.