Triage

This article is about the concept of triage as it occurs in medical emergencies and disasters. For other uses, see Triage (disambiguation).
Triage tent set up outside of a Swedish Hospital
A triage area outside the US Pentagon building following 9/11.
Australian medic conducts triage in the shade of a tree. Pakistan 2010.
A Hospital Corpsman prepares a wounded Marine for evacuation from a forward aid station in the Yanggu area.
An U.S. Air Force emergency responder from the 35th Medical Group evacuates a simulated casualty during a major accident response exercise at Misawa Air Base.
U.S. Air Force Capt. Jennilyn Estell, right, a dentist with the 374th Dental Squadron, guides Senior Airman Fausto Rojas, a simulated patient with the 374th Medical Support Squadron, to a decontamination area
From top-left to bottom-right:
COVID-19 triage tent outside of a Swedish Hospital
9/11 triage station outside of the Pentagon
2010 Pakistan floods triage station under a tree
Korean War triage station in modern South Korea
Mass casualty drill at Misawa Air Base
CBRN triage drill at Yokota Air Base

In medicine, triage (/ˈtriːɑːʒ/, /triˈɑːʒ/) is a process by which care providers such as medical professionals and those with first aid knowledge determine the order of priority for providing treatment to injured individuals[1] and/or inform the rationing of limited supplies so that they go to those who can most benefit from it.[2] Triage is usually relied upon when there are more injured individuals than available care providers (known as a mass casualty incident), or when there are more injured individuals than supplies to treat them.[3]

The methodologies of triage vary by institution, locality, and country but have the same universal underlying concepts.[4] In most cases, the triage process places the most injured and most able to be helped as the first priority, with the most terminally injured the last priority (except in the case of reverse triage).[5] Triage systems vary dramatically based on a variety of factors, and can follow specific, measurable metrics, like trauma scoring systems, or can be based on the medical opinion of the provider.[6] Triage is an imperfect practice, and can be largely subjective, especially when based on general opinion rather than a score.[7][8] This is because triage needs to balance multiple and sometimes contradictory objectives simultaneously, most of them being fundamental to personhood: likelihood of death, efficacy of treatment, patients' remaining lifespan, ethics, and religion.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Robertson-Steel_2006 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Muensterer OJ, Gianicolo EA, Paul NW (January 2021). "Rationing and triage of scarce, lifesaving therapy in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional, social media-driven, scenario-based online query of societal attitudes". IJS Global Health. 4 (1): e47. doi:10.1097/GH9.0000000000000047. ISSN 2576-3342. S2CID 220847218.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Iserson_2007 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference World Health Organization_2008 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference van Ruler_2022 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Petridou-2008 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Xiang-2014 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Turégano-Fuentes-2008 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).