The word triage comes from the French verb trier, which means to separate from others, to sort. There are a number of prehospital triage systems in the world, usually designed for adult patients. Triage systems for children have also been developed, such as JumpSTART MCI Triage, Paediatric SATS Chart or Paediatric CTAS. Poland lacks an appropriate uniform paediatric system and paediatric hospitals use systems from other countries. Until recently no method of prioritising and coding of sick children reporting to the hospital had been developed. Such an attempt has been made at the Western Hospital in Grodzisk Mazowiecki, Poland, where an original paediatric triage system has been created to meet the needs of the emergency department. This article presents the paediatric triage system of the Western Hospital in Grodzisk Mazowiecki, which has been used since April 2016. This system for categorisation and prioritisation of patients was developed based on the Manchester Triage System. It uses the following colours: red – for patients requiring immediate help, orange – for children requiring urgent admission within 10 minutes, yellow – for patients who may wait for help up to 1 hour, green – for individuals who may receive help within up to 4 hours and blue – for patients who can wait up to 6 hours. A fast-track procedure has also been included. The triage system is an additional procedure that does not cause any inconvenience and thanks to which the patient may receive necessary help as quickly as their clinical condition requires it. In addition, full documentation of the procedure protects medical staff against unjustified claims by the guardians of sick children.

paediatric triage, patient prioritisation, emergency department, life-threatening medical emergencies, children