A Physician and Nurse will work together to assign a triage category to each patient. The triage officer does not stop to treat patients.
During a Disaster, the standard UAH triage categories will be followed:
Priority 1: These are patients with a critical injury which requires immediate care.
Priority 2: Patients with significant injury, but in whom delays in care will not cause significant morbidity.
Priority 3: Patients in whom injuries are minor, and can tolerate minor delays.
Priority 4: Patients in whom injuries are minor and can tolerate substantial delays.
Priority 5: Low severity injuries. These patients may be asked by the Charge or Triage Physician to vacate the department and either return at a later time or be followed by their family doctors.
Triage categories may change over time, and reasignment should occur.
Patients are not moved backwards(against the flow).
Critically ill patients are not held in the triage area for further care.
Note that the Triage and Registration process will assign a pod designation but not a specific bed. Specific bed assignment is done by the Area Leader Nurse.
.Remember that triage systems are always imperfect. An undertriage rate of 5% or less is generally acceptable. Overtriage rates of up to 50% are common.
Military-Type disaster triage is well documented, but rarely needed in civilian situations.
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