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SARS

Letters

CJEM 2003;5(6):381

To the Editor: In the September issue of CJEM, the CAEP Position Statement, "Implications of the SARS outbreak for Canadian emergency departments," states in Recommendation 9 (p. 347) that "Ontario has mandated 24/7 triage staffing by appropriately trained nurses, and this should become a national standard."1 Although this is a laudatory goal it is important to point out that other trained health care professionals also perform triage in emergency departments in this country. In Halifax, our single tertiary care institution (Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre/Capital Health) has had paramedics performing triage (successfully) for over 10 years.2 The goal remains the same: rapid, safe standardized triage by trained health care professionals.

John M. Tallon, MD
Department of Emergency Medicine
QEII HSC/Capital Health
Dalhousie University
Halifax, NS

References

  1. Ovens H, Thompson J, Lyver M, Murray MJ, Innes G, on behalf of the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians (CAEP). Implications of the SARS outbreak for Canadian emergency departments [position statement]. Can J Emerg Med 2003;5(5):343-7.
  2. Cook S, Sinclair D. Emergency department triage: a program assessment using the tools of continuous quality improvement. J Emerg Med 1997;15(6):889-94.

Letters will be considered for publication if they relate to topics of interest to emergency physicians in urban, rural, community or academic settings. Letters responding to a previously published CJEM article should reach CJEM head office in Vancouver (see masthead for details) within 6 weeks of the article's publication. Letters should be limited to 400 words and 5 references. For reasons of space, letters may be edited for brevity and clarity.

Les lettres seront considérées pour publication si elles sont pertinentes à la médecine d'urgence en milieu urbain, rural, communautaire ou universitaire. Les lettres en réponse à des articles du JCMU publiés antérieurement devraient parvenir au siège social du JCMU à Vancouver (voir titre pour plus de détails) moins de six semaines après la parution de l'article en question. Les lettres ne devraient pas avoir plus de 400 mots et cinq références. Pour des raisons d'espace et par souci de concision et de clarté, certaines lettres pourraient être modifiées.

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