Triage

triage

Division of patients for priority of care, usually into three categories: those who will not survive even with treatment; those who will survive without treatment; and those whose survival depends on treatment. If triage is applied, the treatment of patients requiring it is not delayed by useless or unnecessary treatment of those in the other groups. Triage originated in military medicine, when limited resources faced many wounded soldiers. It is used in civilian settings during disasters or epidemics and in emergency rooms. Triage decisions are made after relatively quick examination; patients in lower-priority groups should be reexamined periodically.

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triage [trē′äzh]

(medicine)

The process of determining which casualties (as from an accident, disaster, military battle, or explosion of nuclear weapons) need urgent treatment, which ones are well enough to go untreated, and which ones are beyond hope of benefit from treatment.

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Triage 

in medieval France the right and custom of lords to allot to themselves a portion of the common lands, usually one-third. Triage, widely practiced in the 18th century, was abolished by the French Revolution.