Objective Emergency department (ED) triage systems are used to classify the severity and urgency of emergency patients, and Korean medical institutions use the Korean Triage and Acuity Scale (KTAS). During the COVID-19 pandemic, appropriate treatment for emergency patients was delayed due to various circumstances, such as overcrowding of EDs, lack of medical workforce resources, and increased workload on medical staff. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of the KTAS in predicting the urgency of emergency patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods This study retrospectively reviewed patients who were treated in the ED during the pandemic period from January 2020 to June 2021. Patients were divided into COVID-19–screening negative (SN) and COVID-19–screening positive (SP) groups. We compared the predictability of the KTAS for urgent patients between the two groups. Results From a total of 107,480 patients, 62,776 patients (58.4%) were included in the SN group and 44,704 (41.6%) were included in the SP group. The odds ratios for severity variables at each KTAS level revealed a more evident discriminatory power of the KTAS for severity variables in the SN group (P<0.001). The predictability of the KTAS for severity variables was higher in the SN group than in the SP group (area under the curve, P<0.001). Conclusion During the pandemic, the KTAS had low accuracy in predicting patients in critical condition in the ED. Therefore, in future pandemic periods, supplementation of the current ED triage system should be considered in order to accurately classify the severity of patients.
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Prognostic Performance of the Korean Triage and Acuity Scale Combined with the National Early Warning Score for Predicting Mortality and ICU Admission at Emergency Department Triage: A Retrospective Observational Study Jungtaek Park, Sang Hoon Oh, Ae Kyung Gong, Jee Yong Lim, Sun Hee Woo, Won Jung Jeong, Ji Hoon Kim, In Soo Kim, Soo Hyun Kim Diagnostics.2026; 16(2): 345. CrossRef
Prognostic value of novel indices combining Shock Index, Reverse Shock Index, age, and oxygen saturation for predicting mortality in COVID-19 patients in Iran at emergency department triage: a cross-sectional study Mehdi Torabi, Atefe Noroozpour, Neda Naeemi Bafghi, Moghaddameh Mirzaee Acute and Critical Care.2025; 40(3): 425. CrossRef
Objective The efficacy of previously developed respiratory barrier enclosures to limit healthcare workers’ exposure to aerosols from COVID-19 patients remains unclear; in addition, the design of these devices is unsuitable for transportation or other emergency procedures. Therefore, we developed a novel negative pressure respiratory isolator to improve protection from patient-generated aerosols and evaluated its protective effect in conversion to systemic isolator. Methods This in vitro study simulated droplets by nebulizing 1% glycerol + 99% ethanol solution. We performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and converted a respiratory barrier enclosure into a systemic isolator with a respiratory barrier as well as a respiratory barrier with negative pressure generator (NPG), which were compared with control and room air. During the procedure, particles were counted for 30 seconds and the count was repeated 10 times. Results During CPR, the total number of particles in the respiratory barrier with NPG (280,529; interquartile range [IQR], 205,263–359,195; P=0.970) was similar to that in the control (308,789; IQR, 175,056–473,276). Using NPG with a respiratory barrier reduced the number of particles to 27,524 (IQR, 26,703– 28,905; P=0.001). Particle number during conversion of the respiratory barrier into a systemic isolator was also lower than in the control (25,845; IQR, 19,391– 29,772; P=0.001). Conclusion The novel isolator was converted to a systemic isolator without air leakage. The aerosol-blocking effect of the isolator was quantified using a particle counter during CPR. Further studies comparing the barrier effect of isolators within various pressure differentials are warranted.
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A New Method Proposed for Analyzing Airflow Dynamics in Negative Pressure Isolation Chambers Using Particle Image Velocimetry Min Jae Oh, Jung Min Moon, Seung Cheol Ko, Min Ji Kim, Ki Sub Sung, Jung Woo Lee, Ju Young Hong, Joon Sang Lee, Yong Hyun Kim Bioengineering.2025; 12(3): 302. CrossRef
Enhanced Aerosol Containment Performance of a Negative Pressure Hood with an Aerodynamic Cap Design: Multi-Method Validation Using CFD, PAO Particles, and Microbial Testing Seungcheol Ko, Kisub Sung, Min Jae Oh, Yoonjic Kim, Min Ji Kim, Jung Woo Lee, Yoo Seok Park, Yong Hyun Kim, Ju Young Hong, Joon Sang Lee Bioengineering.2025; 12(6): 624. CrossRef
Enhancing Aerosol Mitigation in Medical Procedures: A CFD-Informed Respiratory Barrier Enclosure Ju Young Hong, Seungcheol Ko, Ki Sub Sung, Min Jae Oh, Min Ji Kim, Jung Woo Lee, Yoo Seok Park, Yong Hyun Kim, Joon Sang Lee Bioengineering.2024; 11(11): 1104. CrossRef
Objective This study aimed to introduce a novel negative pressure aerosol box (Carrycure Isolator) and to test its efficiency and limitations, with the hope of suggesting improvements and further directions.
Methods A novel aerosol box (Carrycure Isolator) was invented. A single-center, randomized, crossover simulation study of 28 emergency medicine physicians was designed. Three trials of each participant using an intubation manikin were conducted, including intubation without the aerosol box (trial A), intubation with the aerosol box (trial B), and intubation with the aerosol box after familiarization (trial C). The primary endpoint was the time to intubation. The secondary endpoints were first-attempt success, number of attempts, percentage of glottic opening score, and Cormack-Lehane view. Collected data were statistically analyzed for their significance.
Results The median times to intubation of trials A, B, and C were 30.5 (interquartile range [IQR], 28.0–40.0 seconds), 59.0 (IQR, 50.0–75.5 seconds), and 34.0 seconds (IQR, 30.5–47.0 seconds), respectively. Post hoc analysis showed that the time to intubation in trial B was significantly longer than that in trial A (P<0.05), while that the time to intubation in trial C was significantly shorter than that in trial B (P<0.05). Results concerning secondary endpoints showed similar patterns. Participants reported performing intubation with Carrycure Isolator to be relatively difficult, necessitating significant arm movement and view restrictions while increasing their time to intubation.
Conclusion Physicians took a longer time to intubate a manikin using the Carrycure Isolator, a novel negative pressure aerosol box. However, the time was improved after a period of familiarization.
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A New Method Proposed for Analyzing Airflow Dynamics in Negative Pressure Isolation Chambers Using Particle Image Velocimetry Min Jae Oh, Jung Min Moon, Seung Cheol Ko, Min Ji Kim, Ki Sub Sung, Jung Woo Lee, Ju Young Hong, Joon Sang Lee, Yong Hyun Kim Bioengineering.2025; 12(3): 302. CrossRef
Enhancing Aerosol Mitigation in Medical Procedures: A CFD-Informed Respiratory Barrier Enclosure Ju Young Hong, Seungcheol Ko, Ki Sub Sung, Min Jae Oh, Min Ji Kim, Jung Woo Lee, Yoo Seok Park, Yong Hyun Kim, Joon Sang Lee Bioengineering.2024; 11(11): 1104. CrossRef
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