Simple Triage and Evacuation

Simple triage identifies which persons need advanced medical care. In the field, triage also sets priorities for evacuation to hospitals. In START, persons should be evacuated as follows:

• DECEASED are left where they fell, covered if necessary; note that in START a person is not triaged "DECEASED" unless they are not breathing and an effort to reposition their airway has been unsuccessful.
• IMMEDIATE priority evacuation by MEDEVAC if available or ambulance as they need advanced medical care at once or within 1 hour.
• DELAYED can have their medical evacuation delayed until all IMMEDIATE persons have been transported.
• MINOR are not evacuated until all IMMEDIATE and DELAYED persons have been evacuated. These will not need advanced medical care for at least several hours. Continue to re-triage in case their condition worsens.

Advanced Triage

In advanced triage systems, typically implemented by paramedics, battlefield medical personnel or by skilled nurses in the emergency departments of hospitals during disasters, injured people are sorted into five categories. "Tear-off" tags are sometimes used for this purpose.

Black / Expectant
They are so severely injured that they will die of their injuries, possibly in hours or days (large-body burns, severe trauma, lethal radiation dose), or in life-threatening medical crisis that they are unlikely to survive given the care available (cardiac arrest, septic shock); they should be taken to a holding area and given painkillers to ease their passing.

Red / Immediate
They require immediate surgery or other life-saving intervention, first priority for surgical teams or transport to advanced facilities, "cannot wait" but are likely to survive with immediate treatment.

Yellow / Observation
Their condition is stable for the moment but requires watching by trained persons and frequent re-triage, will need hospital care (and would receive immediate priority care under "normal" circumstances).

Green / Wait
They will require a doctor's care in several hours or days but not immediately, may wait for a number of hours or be told to go home and come back the next day (broken bones without compound fractures, many soft tissue injuries).

White / Dismiss
They have minor injuries; first aid and home care are sufficient, a doctor's care is not required. Tagged as : Fundamentals In Nursing