OBJECTIVE: The Maternal Foetal Triage Index (MFTI), a five-tier scale
designed by Ruhl et al (2015) has been evaluated in this study for women
attending the triage area of a tertiary hospital, to examine the effect
on third delay and maternal and neonatal outcomes. DESIGN: Prospective
observational study SETTING: The Labour and Delivery Unit of a tertiary
care hospital SAMPLE: A convenience sample of 1000 women METHODS:
Assessment included maternal history, baseline vital signs and obstetric
examination and categorised the woman as per the MFTI scale. Evaluation
of the MFTI score was assessed based on predefined maternal and neonatal
outcomes within 24h of attendance. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Flow of
patients to triage, presenting complaints, Duration of hospital stay,
maternal and neonatal outcomes within 24h of admission. RESULTS: A
priority wise distribution of subjects based on their clinical diagnosis
was found to be statistically significant for anaemia, previous
caesarean, postpartum haemorrhage, miscarriage and hypertensive
disorders. Sixty seven percent of the subjects belonged to Priority 3-4
and the mean hospital stay duration varied from 8.26±7.68 days for
Priority 1 to 3.82±2.74 days for Priority 4 ((p<0.0001). The
average time spent in the triage room was 30±17minutes. A priority wise
analysis of maternal and neonatal outcomes based on OBICU and NICU
admissions, mortality and stillbirths was found to be significant.
CONCLUSION: The MFTI scale significantly reduced the third delay, which
is crucial in a high-volume, low resource setting. This also simplified
handover, improved documentation and decreased time to secondary
healthcare provider assessment.
KEYWORDS:obstetrictriage,acuity,thirddelay,maternalmortality