Mass-Casualty Incidents & Triage

Mass-Casualty Incident

A mass-casualty incident is an incident in which a significant amount of personnel have been injured and gone unconscious within the same general area. The priority during the initial response to a mass-casualty incident should be to triage the wounded and determine who needs what care, when.

Triage

Triage is split into 4 classifications:

Class	Color	Description
Immediate	Red	Needs immediate qualified medical care to prevent loss of life.
Delayed	Yellow	Needs immediate qualified medical care to prevent loss of life.
Minor	Green	Personnel who need minimal care. Often class 3 can treat themselves if conscious.
Expectant	Black	Treatment would be to the detriment of others. E.g. Class 5 blood loss.

Triage depends on several factors, such as the patient's role; medics are always prioritized above all others though.