Implementation of a surgical screening system for urgent and emergent cases in a tertiary hospital.

Objective: to evaluate the applicability of the "Timing of Acute Care Surgery" (TACS) color classification system in a tertiary public hospital of a developing country.

Methods: we conducted a longitudinal, retrospective study in a single center, from March to August 2016 and the same period in 2017. We opted for the selection of four surgical specialties with high demand for emergencies, previously trained on the TACS system. For comparisons with the previous classifications, we considered emergencies as reds and oranges and urgencies, as yellow, with an ideal time interval for surgery of one hour and six hours, respectively.

Results: non-elective procedures accounted for 61% of the total number of surgeries. The red, orange and yellow classifications were predominant. There was a significant improvement in the time before surgery in the yellow color after the TACS system. Day and night periods influenced the results, with better ones during the night.

Conclusion: this is the first study to use the TACS system in the daily routine of an operating room. The TACS system improved the time of attendance of surgeries classified as yellow.