Triage Area

The triage area should be located preferably at the entrance to the emergency ward. Here, the triage officer will determine the severity of the injury to disaster victims and designate the treatment area to which they should be sent.

In the triage area, the nursing staff will attach to each disaster casualty an appropriately color-coded identification tag. Depending on the diagnosis by the triage officer, the following measures will then be taken:

1) Victims determined to be dead will be given a white tag and moved to the morgue.

2) Patients in stable condition who remain so for a period of 30 minutes or more will be sent to the minor treatment area with a yellow tag.

3) All other patients should be sent to the major treatment area with a red tag.

All patients must have a disaster tag and the forms for any laboratory examinations and x-rays ordered. These standard forms of the hospital concerned should be attached to the disaster tag.