Evaluation of a new prehospital major incident triage tool: Informing current UK practice

Louise Davidson, James Vassallo, Phil Cowburn, Dave Bull, Chris Moran, Holly Carter*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

During mass casualty incidents, the first Ambulance responders on scene face critical decisions about who receives medical treatment first. Effective clinical management of such incidents relies on triage, which prioritises patients based on injury severity, available resources, and the number of casualties. Various decision-making tools have been developed to assist emergency responders with triage decisions. However, there have been concerns raised about the efficacy of existing triage tools, which led to the development of a new pre-hospital triage tool for major incidents. The current study evaluated two versions of the new tool alongside the existing one used by UK emergency responders through a live exercise simulating two different major incidents. Participants offered valuable insights for the tools enhancement, notably in managing non-injured casualties and paediatric patients, and reducing cognitive load when making decisions. These findings shaped the final version of the new tool, deployed to UK Ambulance responders in Spring 2023. Findings demonstrate the importance of considering the visual presentation of triage tools as well as the inclusion of accurate physiological parameters to facilitate responder decision-making when categorising patients in mass casualty triage. Practical implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Article number104740
JournalInternational Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction
Volume111
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024

Keywords

  • Emergency responder
  • Major incident
  • Mass casualty
  • Prehospital
  • Triage

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Evaluation of a new prehospital major incident triage tool: Informing current UK practice'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this