Nurse Researcher Pioneers Automated Triage Analysis
Aubrey May Agcon, a clinical research nurse at the Narrows Institute for Biomedical Research and Education, is transforming trauma care through data innovation. Currently deployed at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Corona Clinic and VA New York Harbor Healthcare System in Manhattan, Agcon will present her groundbreaking work at next month’s HIMSS Global Health Conference & Exhibition in Las Vegas.
Her presentation will spotlight how appropriate triage dramatically impacts patient outcomes and resource utilization in trauma centers nationwide.
The Critical Impact of Proper Triage
Appropriate triage decisions save lives. When trauma patients are correctly assessed upon arrival, they receive care matching their injury severity, which directly improves survival rates and recovery outcomes. This precision in care delivery also optimizes valuable hospital resources.
“Determining appropriate triage by looking at trauma overtriage and undertriage ensures patients receive appropriate care based on injury severity,” explains Agcon. “This minimizes delays in critical interventions, reduces mortality and morbidity, and ensures efficient allocation of resources like personnel and equipment.”
The benefits extend beyond individual patients to entire healthcare systems, enhancing both patient safety and operational efficiency through reduced overtriage and undertriage rates.
Leading Methods in Trauma Triage Assessment
Healthcare providers currently rely on several established methods to determine appropriate trauma triage:
Cribari Matrix Method (CMM)
This retrospective approach evaluates overtriage and undertriage rates using the Injury Severity Score (ISS). While widely implemented, critics note that CMM may not adequately account for physiological factors, potentially introducing subjectivity into assessments.
Need for Trauma Intervention (NFTI)
The NFTI method identifies major trauma cases by evaluating specific criteria tied to resource utilization, including:
- Blood product administration within four hours
- Emergency transfers to interventional radiology
- Operating room and intensive care unit disposition
- Ventilator usage
- Mortality within 60 hours of arrival
These metrics help determine whether trauma team activation was appropriate for each case.
Standardized Triage Assessment Tool (STAT)
STAT represents an integrated approach that combines CMM’s severity scoring with NFTI’s intervention criteria. This comprehensive method improves accuracy by considering both injury severity and required medical interventions, helping trauma centers evaluate activation patterns and assign appropriate triage designations.
Automation Transforms Trauma Performance Improvement
Agcon’s innovation lies in developing an automated tool that dramatically improves workflow efficiency in trauma performance improvement processes. Her data analysis solution eliminates manual calculation errors while enhancing decision-making quality.
“Automated tools enhance trauma performance improvement by reducing manual errors in data analysis,” Agcon notes. “They help trauma providers determine triage appropriateness and allocate more time to focus on critical areas in trauma care. “Tools can automate repetitive tasks like data entry, scheduling or documentation.”
This technology allows trauma teams to evaluate activation protocols more effectively, identify improvement opportunities, and implement changes that enhance patient safety and resource allocation. The ultimate benefit is positive influence on trauma outcomes through reduced morbidity and mortality rates.
Workflow Optimization Strategies for Healthcare Professionals
When asked to identify strategies healthcare professionals can implement to optimize workflows, Agcon emphasizes task automation as universally applicable.
“Wherever we are, we can optimize workflow through task automation,” she advises. “Tools can automate repetitive tasks like data entry, scheduling or documentation.”
She recommends creating dashboards or automated reports to reduce time-consuming activities in daily workflows. By utilizing available tools or developing new ones, healthcare professionals can save time, minimize errors, and focus on high-value activities—ultimately enhancing overall efficiency and productivity in patient care delivery.
Agcon’s presentation at HIMSS will demonstrate how her collaboration with a Level 1 trauma center validated her tool’s accuracy and performance using actual trauma registry data, offering conference attendees a proven solution to a critical healthcare challenge.
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