It is a question that has been debated for decades: who should be triaged first during an emergency?
The answer to this question may seem intuitive at first. In the US, the general rule of thumb is that children and pregnant women are triaged before everyone else. However, what if you were in charge of a situation where there was no pediatrician or OBGYN on staff?
What is a triage?
In essence, it’s the process of sorting different people according to their medical needs. A person who has an injury and somebody with uncontrollable bleeding would be classified as two patients in need of “urgent” or “emergency care”. The goal for emergency services is to provide those urgent cases with medical attention first so that they can stabilize before treating less severe conditions.
We’ve been debating this question on Quora: what should happen if you are in charge of a situation where there isn’t any pediatrician or OBGYN on staff? (link) What do you think about when deciding which patient should be treated first during other types of emergencies besides children-related ones?
