International Triage Protocols

Triage refers to how health care professionals assess which patients receive treatment first in disaster scenarios when multiple patients need medical care and treatment. Patient triage gives those with the greatest chance of survival the opportunity to receive emergency medical treatment. The order in which a person receives treatment is determined by medical condition status and possible prognosis. An international triage protocol allows health care professionals to triage patients using standard guidelines recognized and approved globally.These protocols include patient assessment, determination of immediate life threats and assigning priority for transport.

Patient Assessment

• Health care providers, such as a nurse or paramedic, perform a quick patient assessment during the triage process to determine a patient's condition. Triage assessments include a head-to-toe exam that quickly provides the nurse with basic information regarding the patient's current condition. He looks for bleeding, deformities, trauma and life threats. A nurse uses his eyes and hands to assess each patient in less than 30 seconds. International triage protocols include looking for severe bleeding, breathing trouble and broken bones as well as how to perform quick assessments and which conditions have priority status over others.

Life Threats

• During triage, a health care provider looks for life threats which result in death if left untreated. Airway compromise, respiratory distress, cardiac problems, severe bleeding and major traumatic injuries, which may result in damage to internal organs, are on the list. Immediate life threats include any problem that results in patient death if not treated immediately. Life threats that are found during assessment should be immediately corrected when possible, but those assigned to triage duties should not spend extended time on the patient.

Transport Priority

• Triage protocols also include assigning priority of a patient's hospital transportation. Triage tags identify by color the patient's condition and the order in which they are transported from the scene. Life threatening conditions requiring immediate transport receive red tags. Yellow indicates a severe condition, but without life threats. Green tags indicate a not-so-serious patient condition that may not need an ambulance or emergency transportation. Black tags are assigned to deceased patients or those whose chance of survival is unlikely.