"Traffic lights"

.......السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته

Green means go!
Yellow means either to go or to stop, but many take this as time to speeding..
Red means stop.

That is how the traffic lights works. "GREEN, YELLOW, and RED." The same color is used during emergency conditions. But, what does it means in triage? When someone need to be tagged? Who actually plays role in doing this? In time of emergency, we still have time for tagging people? TAG---sounds like tagging your friends on pictures or posts in the Facebook, right? No, no, no... it is not that simple. Let me explain further..

Triage Tags is a tool first responders and medical personnel use during a mass casualty incident. With the aide of the triage tags, the first-arriving personnel are able to effectively and efficiently distribute the limited resources and provide the necessary immediate care for the victims until more help arrives.

• The four colors of triage and they come in the form of:

*Black (Expectant) which entails pain medication only until death.

-The casualty is expected not to reach higher medical support alive without compromising the treatment of higher priority patients. Care should not be abandoned, spare any remaining time and resources after Immediate and Delayed patients have been treated

*Red (Immediate) which entails life threatening injuries.

-The casualty requires immediate medical attention and will not survive if not seen soon. Any compromise to the casualty's respiration, hemorrhage control, or shock control could be fatal.

*Yellow (Delayed) which entails non-life threatening injuries.

-The casualty requires medical attention within 6 hours. Injuries are potentially life-threatening, but can wait until the Immediate casualties are stabilized and evacuated.

*Green: (Minor or Minimal) which entails minor injuries.

-"Walking wounded," the casualty requires medical attention when all higher priority patients have been evacuated, and may not require stabilization or monitoring.

• A section informing medical personnel of the patient’s vital signs along with the treatment administered.
• A section on the patient’s demographics i.e., gender, residential address, etc. and the patient’s medical history.
• A section with a full pictorial view of the human body. The medical personnel indicate which parts of the body are injured.

The triage tags are placed near the head and are used to better separate the victims so that when more help arrives, the patients are easily recognizable.

Some examples of triage tag:

a) Typical triage tag, with 'tear-off' sections for decontamination and patient tracking

b) SMART tag

c) METTAG system in Japan

d) even a simple tape can be used as tag!

Triage is an essential function in Emergency Departments (EDs), where many patients may present simultaneously. Urgency refers to the need for time-critical intervention - it is not synonymous with severity.

The aim of the triage are:

1. To ensure that patients are treated in the order of their clinical urgency
2. To ensure that treatment is appropriately and timely.
3. To allocate the patient to the most appropriate assessment and treatment area
4. To gather information that facilitates the description of the departmental casemix.

Resources:
1) Emergency Department Triage (Pdf)
2) Triage In The Emergency Department (Pdf)
3) Wikipedia-Triage
4) Wikipedia-Triage tag