triaging

Triaging is the process of determining the priority of medical treatments for patients or tasks when resources are constrained. The goal is to maximize overall benefit, especially in emergencies or situations with limited staff, supplies, or time. The term originates from the French word trier, meaning to sort.

In medicine, triage involves rapid assessment and categorization of patients based on the severity of their condition and the likelihood of benefit from treatment. Common frameworks divide patients into categories such as immediate (requires life-saving intervention now), delayed (can wait briefly), minor/minimal (stable and not requiring urgent care), and sometimes expectant (not expected to survive given current conditions and resources). Triage decisions consider the patient’s condition, prognosis with available interventions, and resource availability. Triage is dynamic; patients may be re-evaluated as the situation evolves or resources change. Ethics, fairness, and transparency are central to triage practices.

In disaster and mass casualty settings, triage is practiced both in the field and in hospitals, with field triage guiding initial transport and hospital triage refining prioritization. Protocols such as START (Simple Triage and Rapid Treatment) and SALT (Sort, Assess, Lifesaving Interventions, Treatment/Transport) provide rapid assessment frameworks, though different systems use varying categorization schemes.

Triage is also applied outside medicine. In information technology and customer support, triage refers to prioritizing issues by impact and urgency, assigning resources to address the most critical items first, and continuously reassessing the queue as conditions change.