Cambodian Triage

A nurse I met with at the weekend who was first time visiting Cambodia with a NGO gave me a great idea for how triage could work here.

The triage system that we are introducing & training on, in my two hospitals, is as follows;

RED Unstable patients with a life threatening conditions that need to be seen immediately e.g airway obstruction, severe asthma, septic shock, fitting

ORANGE Emergency patients that need to be seen very quickly (within 10 minutes) e.g. Heart failure, uncontrolled bleeding, snake bite

YELLOW Priority/Urgent patients that need to be seen by a doctor but can wait an hour for two e.g. Early appendicitis, early malaria, moderate dehydration 

GREEN Stable, non-urgent patients that can wait to be seen or go to OPD for consultation

I've been struggling to inspire a sense of urgency for the whole process of recognizing & managing a sick patient. Currently triaging one patient can take up to 15 minutes, it should be a 2 minute process!

The nurse I met with has only been in country a week but came up with a very good method for instilling a sense of urgency & potentially getting sick patients seen in a timely manner. The method was inspired by a system of triage in mass casualties situations & some beers. 

It goes something like this;

RED Place a $20 note on the patients forehead

ORANGE Place a $10 note on the patients forehead 

YELLOW Place a $5 note on the patients forehead 

GREEN Place a $1 note on the patients forehead


Show me the money............