Section outline

    • There are 53 MTS TTA charts which are presentation, not diagnosis based. Charts are based on what the patient says is happening, not what may be the cause.

      The MTS tools use common names, discriminators and definitions in order to maintain consistency, safety and to allow robust auditing.

      It is a reductive system, starting from the premise that the patient is presenting with a life threatening condition and all high priority discriminators must be ruled out prior to reducing the patient priority. This ensures the safety of the system and that no serious patient conditions are missed.

      Decisions made regarding patient outcome are a clinical judgement made by the clinician; and as long as the MTS is used accurately the system will be safe.

      Although not designed as a streaming tool, the MTS can assist in streaming patients to the most appropriate pathway of care. However, the triage priority is a clinical indicator and is absolute; the management of particular patient will depend on service priorities and services available; management of patients should never be confused with a patients clinical priority.