The Development of Emergency Medical Services
Triage
| The word triageis of French origin, and means "to sort." Triaging, in the medical sense, refers to the sorting of casualties of war or other disaster based on the severity of injuries or medical problems in order to determine priority of need and the most appropriate site of treatment. The United States Army began the practice of triaging casualties in World War I, but the use of helicopters during the conflicts in Korea and Vietnam put triage securely at the center of emergency medical care. |
 45. Triage
Suippes, France, 1944
Triage of wounded soldiers getting off the new hospital train, "Mercy Special No. 2." The train was built by the American Railway Service, and would load up with wounded at the collecting point in Riardo, Italy.
Courtesy of The National Museum of Health and Medicine, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, photo # 17413. |
Triage classifications vary from system to system, but generally fall within a range of I to IV:
I - Immediate
II - Urgent
III - Semiurgent
s
IV - Nonurgent
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This method was so effective in the Korean and Vietnam conflicts, triage procedures were adopted in emergency rooms across the United States. The first non-military triage systems in the U.S. were implemented in the early 1960s on the East Coast. Today, triage systems are utilized in almost every emergency room in the country. |
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