NREMT Paramedic Cognitive ExamOperationsMedium
A paramedic is working at a large-scale incident involving a train derailment with multiple casualties. The Incident Commander has requested a rapid assessment of all patients to determine their priority for immediate treatment and transport. Which of the following triage systems is MOST appropriate for this initial assessment?
- AAPGAR Score
- BRevised Trauma Score (RTS)
- CSTART Triage
- DGlasgow Coma Scale (GCS)
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: C. START Triage
START (Simple Triage and Rapid Treatment) Triage is specifically designed for mass casualty incidents to quickly categorize patients based on their ability to walk, respiratory status, perfusion, and mental status, assigning them a priority for treatment and transport.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. APGAR score is used for assessing newborns, completely irrelevant here.
- B. RTS is a secondary triage tool used for predicting survival, not for initial rapid categorization in an MCI.
- D. GCS is for assessing neurological status, not a full triage system for MCI.
START Triage
A rapid, systematic method for triaging mass casualty incident (MCI) patients into categories (immediate, delayed, minor, deceased) based on simple physiological assessments.
- Used for initial patient categorization in MCIs.
- Assesses ability to walk, respirations, perfusion, and mental status (RPM).
- Categories: Red (Immediate), Yellow (Delayed), Green (Minor), Black (Deceased).
Memory trick: Mass Casualty Needs START to Sort.