Validity and reliability of a novel Color-Risk Psychiatric Triage in a psychiatric emergency department.

Background: Classification of Psychiatric Emergency Presentations (PEP) is not sufficiently clear due to their inherent high inter-subjectivity and lack of validated triage instruments. In order to improve current classification of psychiatric emergency presentations (PEP) at Emergency Departments, we implemented and validated the Color-Risk Psychiatric Triage (CRPT), an instrument for classifying PEP risk by sorting one to five color/risk levels and one to thirty-two possible conditions arranged by risk.

Methods: Users who visited the Emergency Department (ED) of a Mexican psychiatric hospital from Dec 1st, 2008 to Dec 1st, 2009 were included.