Table 1

The 5 (five) scale groups from A to E used at Peijas ED.

A

immediate care (for example resuscitation)

B

the patient must be seen by a doctor (usually a specialist) within 10 minutes (acute crises)

C

the patient needs to meet a doctor within 1 hour (severe infections, trauma etc)

D

the patient needs to meet a doctor within 2 hours (minor trauma, less severe infections etc)

E

Not an acute patient, must wait till more urgent patients from groups A-D were treated (non-urgent problems: mild upper respiratory tract infections, mild fever, cough, chronic symptoms in back, pain in ear, mild diarrhoea or vomiting, prolonged general weakness and tiredness)

Kantonen et al. BMC Emergency Medicine 2010 10:12   doi:10.1186/1471-227X-10-12