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Population‐based Triage Management in Response to Surge‐capacity Requirements during a Large‐scale Bioevent Disaster
Author(s) -
Burkle Frederick M.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
academic emergency medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.221
H-Index - 124
eISSN - 1553-2712
pISSN - 1069-6563
DOI - 10.1197/j.aem.2006.06.040
Subject(s) - triage , medicine , surge capacity , population , mass casualty incident , medical emergency , emergency management , population control , scale (ratio) , poison control , covid-19 , injury prevention , environmental health , infectious disease (medical specialty) , disease , geography , pathology , family planning , political science , law , research methodology , cartography
Both the naturally occurring and deliberate release of a biological agent in a population can bring catastrophic consequences. Although these bioevents have similarities with other disasters, there also are major differences, especially in the approach to triage management of surge capacity resources. Conventional mass‐casualty events use uniform methods for triage on the basis of severity of presentation and do not consider exposure, duration, or infectiousness, thereby impeding control of transmission and delaying recognition of victims requiring immediate care. Bioevent triage management must be population based, with the goal of preventing secondary transmission, beginning at the point of contact, to control the epidemic outbreak. Whatever triage system is used, it must first recognize the requirements of those S usceptible but not exposed, those E xposed but not yet infectious, those I nfectious, those R emoved by death or recovery, and those protected by V accination or prophylactic medication ( SEIRV methodology). Everyone in the population falls into one of these five categories. This article addresses a population approach to SEIRV‐based triage in which decision making falls under a two‐phase system with specific measures of effectiveness to increase likelihood of medical success, epidemic control, and conservation of scarce resources.