SORTing it out: Increasing efficiency in the face of a flu pandemic

The idea for SORT —Strategy for Off-Site Rapid Triage—emerged from a fear: that during a pandemic, people with flu-like symptoms would flood emergency rooms and clinics. Crowded waiting rooms would, ironically, become prime sites for flu transmission and the constant influx of patients could topple an already overloaded healthcare system.

So in December 2008, even before H1N1 was on the world’s radar, Emory researchers and clinicians developed a screening tool that could work outside the hospital setting to reduce patient surges during a flu pandemic. ... more