The Four Categories
Green indicates minor injuries and walking wounded, yellow is delayed, red is immediate, and black is deceased or expectant. Triage is a rapid, brief assessment, not treatment. Spend about 30 seconds or less per patient.
The Algorithm
First ask walking patients to move to a designated area and tag them green. Then for each remaining patient, check respirations: none after opening the airway is black, over 30 per minute is red. Next check perfusion by radial pulse or capillary refill, and then mental status by ability to follow commands.
Allowed Interventions
Limit treatment to opening an airway and controlling major bleeding. Re-triage patients regularly as conditions change. JumpSTART is used for children aged roughly 1 to 8 years, with modifications for respiratory rate and rescue breaths.