Disaster Triage

• 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:

  1. Priority 1: These are patients with a critical injury which requires immediate care.

  2. Priority 2: Patients with significant injury, but in whom delays in care will not cause significant morbidity.

  3. Priority 3: Patients in whom injuries are minor, and can tolerate minor delays.

  4. Priority 4: Patients in whom injuries are minor and can tolerate substantial delays.

  5. 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.

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• 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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