Field triage, also known as START triage, is a method used by first responders during a mass casualty incident to quickly classify victims into four categories - deceased/expectant, immediate, delayed, and walking wounded/minor - based on the severity of their injuries. The goal is to save as many lives as possible by prioritizing treatment for those with life-threatening injuries. Responders establish safety zones, don protective equipment, and assess non-ambulatory patients. Only basic life-saving interventions are performed to check for signs of life before declaring a patient deceased. Breathing patients are further evaluated using RPM criteria to identify those needing rapid medical attention.

1. Field Triage in MCI
ETD HKL 2020

2. There are 2 type of triage:
- Hospital triage: The one we use in our daily
work in hospital.
- Field triage: Triage method used during
MCI, in which aiming at to save more
numbers.
This method used by first responders to
quickly classify victims during a mass
casualty incident (MCI) based on the
severity of their injury.

3. START evaluate victims and assign
them to one of the following four
categories:
• Deceased/expectant (Msia use
white, other countries-> black)
• Immediate (red)
• Delayed (yellow)
• Walking wounded/minor (green)
‘START’
Simple triage and rapid treatment

4. 1.Establish and maintain scene safety.
Consider potential ingress and egress.
Identify hot, warm, and cold zones.
Don appropriate PPE.
Determine triage methodology.
a.Simple triage and rapid treatment (START)
b.SALT
c.other
2. Non-ambulatory patients are then assessed. The only medical
intervention used prior to declaring a patient deceased is an attempt to
open the airway, securing cathatrohic bleeding, antidote administration
and needle tension pneumothorax release.
3. Any patient who is not breathing after this attempt is classified as
deceased and given a white tag. No further interventions or therapies are
attempted on deceased patients until all other patients have been treated.
4. Patients who are breathing will be assess using RPM
• R: Respiratory rate greater than 30 per minute (adult)
• P: Radial pulse is absent, or CRT >2s
• M: Unable to follow simple commands
How to do?