Triage
Triage is the medical sorting system used in Australian Emergency Departments and clinics to prioritise patient care based on clinical urgency. Specially trained triage nurses assess every patient on arrival and assign them a category from 1 (immediate, life-threatening) to 5 (less urgent), ensuring the most critically ill are treated first, regardless of the order in which people arrive.
How does the Australasian Triage Scale (ATS) work?
Australian Emergency Departments use the Australasian Triage Scale (ATS), a standardised five-category system developed and maintained by the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM). The ATS is used across all public hospital EDs in Australia and New Zealand, offering a consistent system to support fast clinical prioritisation in high-pressure situations.
Each category reflects the longest safe time a patient should wait, rather than an average. Hospital performance is judged by the proportion of patients in each category within those timeframes.
| Category | Label | Seen within | ED target | Example presentations |
| 1 | Resuscitation | Immediately | Greater than or equal to 70-75% | Cardiac arrest, unconscious patient, major trauma with haemorrhage |
| 2 | Emergency | Within 10 minutes | Greater than or equal to 70-75% | Chest pain, stroke symptoms, high-risk overdose, severe breathing difficulty |
| 3 | Urgent | Within 30 minutes | Greater than or equal to 70-75% | High fever with altered behaviour, moderate abdominal pain |
| 4 | Semi-urgent | Within 60 minutes | Greater than or equal to 70-75% | Minor fracture, ear or eye pain, mild asthma with normal oxygen levels |
| 5 | Non-urgent | Within 120 minutes | Greater than or equal to 70-75% | Chronic low-grade pain, minor skin irritation, prescription queries |
What happens if you are triaged as non-urgent?
If you are classified as Category 4 or 5, semi-urgent or non-urgent, your waiting time is usually longer because patients with more serious conditions are prioritised first. During peak demand, this can mean waiting several hours before being seen.
Why triage is essential for patient safety?
Triage ensures that limited hospital resources are directed where they are needed most. It allows doctors to:
- Quickly identify and manage life-threatening conditions.
- Reduce the risk of deterioration in critically unwell patients while they wait.
- Safely handle high patient volumes.
- Maintain order in the busy Emergency Departments.
Without triage, patients with minor conditions could be treated before those in critical condition, leading to serious harm and fatal outcomes.
Medical Disclaimer: The content on this page is for informational purposes only.
