Prehospital triage for mass casualties

During mass casualty incidents the demands placed on health systems far outweigh available resources. The only way to ensure that the greatest number of patients survives is to prioritize who gets treated and evacuated first. In the military this is accomplished by mass casualty triage where casualties are sorted by the severity of their wounds and assigned priorities of care and evacuation. This concept has been adopted by the civilian community, and events such as Hurricane Katrina and the Boston Marathon bombing emphasize its necessity. Currently there are several triage systems used by various countries, and by various states and local responders even within the same country. This has created challenges when multiple organizations and jurisdictions respond to the same mass casualty incident. In an effort to correct for this issue and to encourage evidence-based practices, the Model Uniform Core Criteria (MUCC) were developed.