The Swine Flu Triage (SwiFT) study: development and ongoing refinement of a triage tool to provide regular information to guide immediate policy and practice for the use of critical care services during the H1N1 swine influenza pandemic.

Rowan KM, Harrison DA, Walsh TS, McAuley DF, Perkins GD, Taylor BL, Menon DK
Record ID 32011000122
English
Authors' objectives:

To initiate and co-ordinate an essential research study efficiently, within the NHS, in a pandemic situation.
To use both existing critical care and early pandemic data to inform care during the pandemic (potentially to inform triage – if the situation arose where demand for critical care seriously exceeded capacity).
To monitor the impact of the H1N1 pandemic on critical care services, in real time, with regular feedback to critical care clinicians and others to inform ongoing policy and practice.

The aim of the Swine Flu Triage study (SwiFT) was to provide information, early in the pandemic, to guide critical care clinicians and policy-makers. The objectives were:To initiate and co-ordinate an essential research study efficiently, within the NHS, in a pandemic situation. To use both existing critical care and early pandemic data to inform care during the pandemic (potentially to inform triage – if the situation arose where demand for critical care seriously exceeded capacity). To monitor the impact of the H1N1 pandemic on critical care services, in real time, with regular feedback to critical care clinicians and others to inform ongoing policy and practice.
Authors' recommendations: Models based on routine physiology suggested limited value for triage. More data and further modelling are warranted. The magnitude of the pandemic did not approach the worst-case scenario modelling, and UK-confirmed H1N1 cases appeared similar to those reported internationally.
Details
Project Status: Completed
URL for project: http://www.hta.ac.uk/fullmono/mon1455.pdf#nameddest=article05
Year Published: 2010
URL for published report: http://www.hta.ac.uk/project/2226.asp
English language abstract: An English language summary is available
Publication Type: Not Assigned
Country: England, United Kingdom
MeSH Terms
  • Age Factors
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Global Health
  • Professional-Patient Relations
  • Critical Care
  • Geriatric Assessment
  • Influenza A Virus, H1N1 Subtype
  • Influenza, Human
  • Pandemics
  • Triage
  • Universal Precautions
Contact
Organisation Name: NIHR Health Technology Assessment programme
Contact Address: NIHR Journals Library, National Institute for Health and Care Research, Evaluation, Trials and Studies Coordinating Centre, Alpha House, University of Southampton Science Park, Southampton SO16 7NS, UK
Contact Name: journals.library@nihr.ac.uk
Contact Email: journals.library@nihr.ac.uk
Copyright: 2010 Queen's Printer and Controller of HMSO
This is a bibliographic record of a published health technology assessment from a member of INAHTA or other HTA producer. No evaluation of the quality of this assessment has been made for the HTA database.