Assessing the Impact of a New Emergency Triage System on Head Injury Mortality: Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital Emergency Department in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Introduction:One of the improvements in Ethiopia’s emergency medical system was the introduction of a five-level Emergency Triage System (ETS) in January 2015 that was piloted in selected Addis Ababa hospitals.Aim:To assess the effect of this intervention on the head injury mortality in Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital (TASH) Emergency Department (ED).Methods:Data were retrospectively collected from all medical records of head injury patients seen in Adult TASH- ED over two 6 months periods, before and after the new Emergency Triage System implementation: 01/04/2014 – 30/09/2014 versus 01/04/2016 – 30/09/2016. An inclusion criterion was age above 13 for the records that could be retrieved. Exclusion criterion was “patient declared dead on arrival.” Mortality and patterns of head injury were compared pre- and post-intervention. Chi-square was used for the analysis using STATA 14.Results:A total of 522 Head injury patients were analyzed in the ED in both the pre- 258 and post-264 intervention study periods. Among head injury admission in the ED in both study periods, the highest number of patients were Road Traffic Accident/RTA/ victims, males and young age (