Triage is the process of sorting of patients into groups depending on the need for immediate intervention. It comes from a French word that means “to sort.”
The technique was developed during World War I to increase the chance of survival for as many patients as possible.
Give each patient a quick assessment of its overall condition, with attention to the most important systems – respiratory, cardiovascular, and neurologic. Admit patients with life-threatening problems immediately for emergency therapy.
Remove those with non-lethal issues, but in need of isolation or temporary intervention for serious problems such as hemorrhage, vomiting, diarrhea, contagious disease, etc., to an appropriate area.
The last group consists of those patients that are stable and reasonably comfortable. These remain with the owner until the more critical patients have been handled.
