Question

The local community hospital routinely practices activation of its Emergency Preparedness Plans. One key aspect of the emergency preparedness exercise is to provide all staff with opportunities to practice their various roles during an actual emergency. Registered nurses from the Emergency Department frequently have key roles in patient triage and emergency management. ( Learning Objectives).

How is triage different in a disaster from triage on a routine day in the Emergency Department?

What are the triage categories during a Mass Casualty Incident?

During the disaster exercise, a simulated patient with a penetrating head injury who does not respond to painful stimuli and has a Glasgow Coma Scale of 5 is brought to the Emergency Department. In what category should the patient be placed?

Answer 1

DISASTER TRIAGE AND TRIAGE IN THE EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT

Triage in a disaster is used to decide who is most urgently in need of transportation to a hospital for care and whose injuries are less severe and must wait for medical care.

Triage in the emergency department is to determine which patients should be seen and treated immediately.

TRIAGE CATEGORIES IN A MASS CASUALITY INCIDENT

1. START (Simple Triage And Rapid Treatment)

Here victims are grouped into 4 categories depending on the need for evacuation.

• the deceased who are beyond help
• the impaired who could be helped by immediate transportation
• the injured with less severe injuries whose transport can be delayed
• those with minor injuries not requiring urgent care

1. ADVANCED TRIAGE

It includes color coding scheme according to the medical attention needed.

• Red tags:(Priority 1)Immediate
• Yellow tags:(Priority 2) Delayed
• Green tags:(Priority3)Minimal
• Black tags:(Priority 4)Expectant

RED TAG FOR HEAD INJURY PATIENT WITH GCS 5