You Can't Make a Silk Purse Out of a Sow's Ear Time to Start Again with MCI Triage

This is a commentary on a study that examined the use of JumpSTART triage by medical students, wherein they either performed unnecessary steps (55.0% of the time) or omitted them (57.0%), even with notes to help them follow the algorithm. The authors contend that, regardless of how the information is taught to the medical community, the algorithm does not work, and so should not be accepted in the first place. They cite other studies that have demonstrated that “application of JumpSTART is more likely to triage patients incorrectly than any other decision-making tool, including a coin toss.” They call for more research to create new triage paradigms.