National Guidelines of Mass Casualty Triage

Instructions

In the article, “Mass Casualty Triage Guideline Makes Its Debut,” Christine Kilgore (2008) discusses the proposed guidelines and whether we are ready for national guidelines.
A proposed national guideline on mass casualty triage will decrease confusion and improve the consistency of disaster triage practices across locales and regions, the guideline’s authors assert.
But other experts caution that the lack of evidence-based standards means it may be too soon to start crafting national guidelines.
The proposed national triage guideline, which was published in a supplement to the September issue of Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, establishes a standardized set of priority categories and color designations for primary triage – including an “expectant” category for patients unlikely to survive–and formalizes processes for sorting patients and applying lifesaving interventions.
Titled SALT (Sort, Assess, Life-Saving Interventions, Treatment and/or Transport), the proposed guideline was designed to be simple and easily integrated into any EMS system’s triage protocols, the authors report.
Discuss the following:
1. Describe the process of SALT triage method of lifesaving interventions.
2. Analyze and assess a disaster scenario and apply SALT triage for your selected threat scenario (i.e., Hurricane Katrina, California wildfire). Alternatively, you can discuss a scenario from your community where SALT was used. Research the guidelines and cite your source in APA format. Use online sources.