In disaster triage, which principle should guide initial patient prioritization?

In disaster triage, which principle should guide initial patient prioritization?

• A. Life over limb
• B. Treat the most severely injured first
• C. First come, first served
• D. Treat patients by age group

Answer: (A)

Disaster triage aims to save as many lives as possible with limited resources, so the guiding principle is to prioritize life-threatening conditions that can be stabilized with quick intervention. This means focusing on patients who have a real chance of survival with timely care, rather than giving precedence to the most severely injured or following arrival order. If treating a life-threatening bleed or airway obstruction can save a life, those patients go first, even if there are others with injuries that might be more dramatic but less urgent. This approach avoids wasting scarce resources on interventions that would not change the outcome for a patient unlikely to survive, and it de-emphasizes age or who arrived first.

Disaster triage aims to save as many lives as possible with limited resources, so the guiding principle is to prioritize life-threatening conditions that can be stabilized with quick intervention. This means focusing on patients who have a real chance of survival with timely care, rather than giving precedence to the most severely injured or following arrival order. If treating a life-threatening bleed or airway obstruction can save a life, those patients go first, even if there are others with injuries that might be more dramatic but less urgent. This approach avoids wasting scarce resources on interventions that would not change the outcome for a patient unlikely to survive, and it de-emphasizes age or who arrived first.