Methodology to Support the Triage of Suspected COVID-19 Patients in Resource-Limited Circumstances

COVID-19 pandemic has put health systems worldwide under pressure. Thus, establish a triage protocol to support the allocation of resources is important to deal with this public health crisis. In this paper, a structured methodology to support the triage of suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients has been proposed, based on the utilitarian principle. A decision model has been proposed for evaluating three treatment alternatives: intensive care, hospital stay and home isolation. The model is developed according to multi-attribute utility theory and considers two criteria: the life of the patient and the overall cost to the health system. A screening protocol is proposed to support the use of the decision model, and a method is presented for calculating the probability of which of three treatment is the best one. The proposed methodology was implemented in an information and decision system. The originality of this study is using of the multi-attribute utility theory to support the triage of suspected COVID-19 and implement the decision model in an information and decision system.