Triaj

Triaj is the Romanian term for triage, the process of rapidly assessing and sorting patients or casualties to determine the priority of treatment and resource allocation during emergencies or mass casualty incidents. The goal is to maximize the number of survivors by directing available medical care to those with the greatest chance of benefit while maintaining fairness and speed.

The term is widely used in Romanian medical contexts and is cognate with the French triage, describing the same concept in emergency departments, ambulances, and disaster response. Triage is performed by trained personnel—often nurses, paramedics, or physicians—at the point of first contact or admission.

Typical triage involves a rapid clinical assessment and categorization that can employ color codes. In many systems, red indicates immediate, life-threatening injuries requiring urgent intervention; yellow denotes serious but not immediately fatal injuries; green marks minor injuries; black or equivalent indicates injuries where survival is unlikely or futile to treat given the situation. Triage decisions are context dependent and subject to reassessment as conditions change, resource availability evolves, and more information becomes available.

In hospital settings, triage organizes patient flow, prioritizes diagnostic tests and treatments, and informs bed and staff allocation. The broader concept—prioritizing tasks or patients based on urgency and benefit—is used in disaster medicine, military medicine, and sometimes information or logistics management.