The Emergency Department of AdLife Hospital is situated  in its own section of the ground floor with a dedicated entrance. As patients can present at any time and with any complaint, a key part of the operation of an emergency department is the prioritization of cases based on clinical need.

When you arrive at the Emergency Department, your first stop is triage. This is the place where each patient's condition is prioritized, typically by a nurse, into categories. This categorization is necessary so that someone with a life-threatening condition is not kept waiting because they arrive a few minutes later than someone with a more routine problem.

The triage nurse records your vital signs (temperature, pulse, respiratory rate and blood pressure). The nurse also gets a brief history of your current medical complaints, past medical problems, medications and allergies  to determine the appropriate triage category.