Reliability of vital signs measured at triage.

Objective: To determine the reliability of vital signs measured at triage in the emergency department.

Methods: The vital signs of all consenting ambulatory patients 16 years old and above presenting at triage were measured by the duty triage nurse as standard practice and then repeated by a single, blinded, trained observer within 2 min of the initial assessment using the same (manual or electronic) methods. The results were analysed using paired sample t-tests.