- Triage
- The process of sorting people based on their need for immediate medical treatment as compared to their chance of benefiting from such care. Triage is done in emergency rooms, disasters and wars when limited medical resources must be allocated to maximize the number of survivors. The US Department of Defense defines "triage" as follows: "The evaluation and classification of casualties for purposes of treatment and evacuation. It consists of the immediate sorting of patients according to type and seriousness of injury, and likelihood of survival, and the establishment of priority for treatment and evacuation to assure medical care of the greatest benefit to the largest number." Triage in this sense originated in World War I. Wounded soldiers were classified into one of three groups: those who could be expected to live without medical care; those who would likely die even with care; and those who could survive if they received care. "Triage" is a French word meaning "sorting, selection, choice." It came from the French verb "trier" meaning "to sort, select, choose" and has been used in English since 1727 to indicate the action of assorting according to quality. For example, coffee beans have long been triaged.
* * *1. Medical screening of patients to determine their relative priority for treatment. 2. The separation of a large number of casualties, in military or civilian disaster medical care, into three groups: 1) those who cannot be expected to survive even with treatment; 2) those who will recover without treatment; and 3) the highest priority group, those who will not survive without treatment. [Fr. sorting]
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tri·age trē-'äzh, 'trē-. n1) the sorting of and allocation of treatment to patients and esp. battle and disaster victims according to a system of priorities designed to maximize the number of survivors2) the sorting of patients (as in an emergency room) according to the urgency of their need for caretriage vt* * *
n.a system whereby a group of casualties or other patients is sorted according to the seriousness of their injuries or illnesses so that treatment priorities can be allocated between them. In emergency situations it is designed to maximize the number of survivors.* * *
tri·age (tre-ahzhґ) (treґahzh) [Fr. “sortingâ€] 1. the sorting out and classification of casualties of war or other disaster, to determine priority of need and proper place of treatment. 2. by extension, the sorting and prioritizing of patients for treatment in nonemergency health care settings.
Medical dictionary. 2011.