Appraisal of Field Triage in Mass Casualty Incidents in Taipei

Address for reprints: Dr. Chi-Ren Hung, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, 95 Wen Chang Road, Shin-Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan Received: Nov 5 2004. Revised: Nov 15 2004. Accepted: Dec 5 2004. TEL: 886-2-28389425 FAX: 886-2-28353547 E-mail: [email protected] Abstract To evaluate the performance of field triage, we retrospectively reviewed the data from 76 victims from mass casualty incidents (MCIs) from January 2003 to December 2004. The golden guides included 4 color-coded triage system, Simplified Triage And Rapid Transportation (START), Revised Trauma Score (RTS) and Pediatric Trauma Score (PTS). Ten items were provide to evaluate the performance. Of the victims, 41 (54%) of them were rescued from fire accidents, 29 (38%) from traffic accidents and 6 (8%) from landslides. The average age were 52+24 years and 40 (52%) were women. In addition, 10 (13%) of them were children (<15 years). The presence of color-coded badges was significantly lower than in exercises (8% vs. 100%, P<0.001). It is similar in specified triage personnel (12% vs. 100%, P<0.001), the rate of over-disposition rate (40% vs. 5%, P<0.001), usage of pediatric triage (0% vs. 100%, P<0.001), and usage of PTS (0% vs. 100%, P<0.001). In conclusion, the field triage is not actually performed according to the standard operations procedure in Taiwan. The most inadequate responses are the absence of speciallydesignated triage personnel, lack of pediatric triage and trauma scoring. The only way to improve the situation may be to implement the triage and trauma scoring into the daily activities of the EMTs. (Ann Disaster Med. 2005;3:69-75)