Triage is used in medical emergencies as a system to classify the injured so that the greatest number of patients can be helped. In medical emergencies where there are more injured people than there are medical resources to care for them, ranking allows doctors or other healthcare professionals to decide which people can get the most help and how to help them efficiently.
Used primarily for medicine on the battlefield or during disaster situations, triage enables healthcare professionals to determine which patients require immediate care to survive, which patients can wait, and which patients are beyond help with resources. limited available. Emergency rooms also classify patients.
Medical personnel on the scene conducting triage move as quickly as possible from patient to patient to assess their situation. Patients with non-life threatening injuries are marked as low priority. Things like broken bones or minor injuries can fall into this category. Often times, patients with minor injuries, sometimes referred to as "walking casualties," can help each other with basic first aid and move to safety in a dangerous environment such as an accident scene.
Patients who will not survive without immediate medical care and are most likely to survive with help are given a high priority. Severe bleeding from wounds, amputation, or internal injury would fall into this category. Basic first aid is not enough to save these patients, but basic surgery will give them a high chance of survival.
Ethically and emotionally, the most difficult aspect of triage is designating some patients as requiring too much care or unlikely to survive even with extreme medical care. However, the recruiting professional must make this difficult decision, as the same four surgeons who would need 10 hours to try to save a severe burn victim, just to give him a slim chance of survival, could save dozens less injured. serious. patients, and give each of them a very good chance of recovery.
An additional aspect of triage is to reduce pressure on nearby emergency medical units and trauma units by sending patients with minor injuries and serious but stable injuries to other doctors who are better able to handle the load. Instructing patients with minor injuries to see their GP or sending patients with serious but stable injuries to more remote hospitals are good examples.
As a method of putting limited medical resources to the best possible good, triage is a necessary tool for healthcare professionals facing an emergency situation.