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Emergency Medicine & First Aid vocabulary · Triage and Major Incidents

Triage tag

Meaning in emergency medicine & first aid, with examples

nounAdvanced term

In emergency medicine & first aid, triage tag means: A coloured label attached to a casualty at a major incident to show their treatment priority, so that other rescuers can see it at a glance.

In Turkish: triyaj kartı, triyaj etiketi

How it is used

Common colours are red for immediate, yellow for delayed or urgent, green for minor and black for dead or not expected to survive, though exact meanings vary between systems. Rescuers tag casualties and re-tag them as their condition changes.

Example sentences

  1. Put a red triage tag on him, he's barely breathing.

  2. Every casualty leaving the scene should have a triage tag.

Common collocations

  • red triage tag
  • attach a triage tag
  • triage tag colour
  • re-tag a casualty
  • triageThe process of quickly sorting patients by how urgently they need treatment, so that the sickest are seen first rather than in order of arrival.
  • mass casualty incidentAn event, such as a major crash, explosion or building collapse, that causes more casualties than local emergency services can normally handle at once.
  • walking woundedInjured people who are still able to walk at the scene of an incident; in triage they are usually the lowest priority group.
  • urgentNeeding attention soon; in triage and ambulance systems, a level of priority that is serious but usually below an immediate threat to life.

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This page explains English vocabulary for learners. It is not medical advice.