The development and features of the Spanish prehospital advanced triage method
(META) for mass casualty incidents
#MMPMID27130042
Arcos González P
; Castro Delgado R
; Cuartas Alvarez T
; Garijo Gonzalo G
; Martinez Monzon C
; Pelaez Corres N
; Rodriguez Soler A
; Turegano Fuentes F
Scand J Trauma Resusc Emerg Med
2016[Apr]; 24
(?): 63
PMID27130042
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This text describes the process of development of the new Spanish Prehospital
Advanced Triage Method (META) and explain its main features and contribution to
prehospital triage systems in mass casualty incidents. The triage META is based
in the Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) protocols, patient's anatomical
injuries and mechanism of injury. It is a triage method with four stages
including early identification of patients with severe trauma that would benefit
from a rapid evacuation to a surgical facility and introduces a new patient flow
by-passing the advanced medical post to improve evacuation. The stages of triage
META are: I) Stabilization triage that classifies patients according to severity
to set priorities for initial emergency treatment; II) Identifying patients
requiring urgent surgical treatment, this is done at the same time than stage I
and creates a new flow of patients with high priority for evacuation; III)
Implementation of Advanced Trauma Life Support protocols to patients previously
classified according to stablished priority; and IV) Evacuation triage,
stablishing evacuation priorities in case of lacks of appropriate transport
resources. The triage META is to be applied only by prehospital providers with
advanced knowledge and training in advanced trauma life support care and has been
designed to be implemented as prehospital procedure in mass casualty incidents
(MCI).
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