Triage variables are important for emergency department modeling tasks. Triage encompasses assigning a risk score to a patient based on their initial presentation and vital signs. It is usually completed by a nurse specialized to perform triage and encompasses both subjective and objective information. Triage scores usually range from 1 (critical) to 5 (non-urgent). The IMMEDR variable (item number 34 in the documentation) is the triage score in this dataset. We will certainly include it.

Other variables we can categorize as triage variables include whether or not the patient arrived via EMS (ARREMS; usually correlated with worse outcomes) and whether or not the patient has been seen and discharged within the last 72 hours (SEEN72). We will also include these variables in our model.