Emergency Triage

Ipswich Hospital Emergency Department was at the leading edge of implementation of a National Triage Scale (NTS) and subsequent Australasian Triage Scale (ATS) that has formed the basis of several triage scales for emergency departments around the world.

Professor Gerard (Gerry) Fitzgerald’s implementation and evaluation of a novel triage system was the basis for the Australasian Triage Scale which has been the cornerstone of Emergency Department operations for more than thirty years. Professor Fitzgerald was previously the Director of the Emergency Department at Ipswich Hospital where he led the development of a modern emergency department.

This formed the basis of his PhD thesis: FitzGerald GJ. Emergency department triage: a thesis accepted for the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Brisbane: University of Queensland, 1990.

Professor Fitzgerald was one of the founders of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine serving on the national Council for ten years, four years as national secretary and four years as Editor in Chief of the College journal. He was subsequently Medical Director and then Commissioner of the Queensland Ambulance Service.