ORGANIZATION WHEN IT’S NEEDED MOST
TRAUMA TRIAGE TAGS
By: Jeremy Pendergraft
Editor’s note: Along with the recent delivery of ballistic protective
gear, County Fire also deployed brand new MCI packs containing
trauma treatment materials and colored triage ribbons to
make the initial categorization of patients quicker, easier and
standardized according to updated practices. However, because
detailed tracking and documentation of patients throughout
the incident is crucial, the use of the familiar triage tag is as
important as ever. This article reviews the basics of using that tag.
In the public eye, mass casualty response can be the shining
moment in our agency’s commitment to providing premier
all-risk protection to the communities we serve. These lowfrequency, high-urgency situations are the gold standard in
evaluating an emergency service provider’s ability to provide
calm and organization in the midst of apparent chaos. San
Bernardino County is certainly no stranger to these incidents.
The Lucerne Valley off-road crowd collision, the Highway
38 bus crash, and the recent IRC terrorist shooting tragedy
all should be a call to attention. We need to master the
organizational structure needed to expertly triage a large
number of injured, treat them accordingly, and have them
expeditiously transported to a facility to meet their medical
needs. One of the most basic elements vital to the incident
triage success is the Disaster Management Services All Risk
Triage Tag.
The EMT3 Optimized All Risk® Triage Tag is specifically
engineered to enable the emergency responder to implement
the START (Simple Triage and Rapid Transport) system
to organize the incident resource needs. In addition, the
tag is completely waterproof and has been tested in all
decontamination solutions.
The tag is divided into several sections, which can be
intimidating until utilized and manipulated during training.
Here we give an overview of these sections in general order of
how the tag may be used on scene.
Contaminated Evidence Strip
Remove this strip if the patient is not contaminated. Or,
the strip can also be removed once the patient has been
decontaminated and placed with the person’s clothing as a
reminder that the clothing is contaminated.
Personal Property Receipt
When applicable, tear off this portion and place it with the
patient’s belongings for later use. If the patient is contaminated
and must be decontaminated before triage, this portion will
help track their clothing. The belongings should be doublebagged, with this identification placed in an accessible area
on the bag for property claim purposes.
40
FIREWIRE • Winter 2016