A concept for major incident triage: full-scaled simulation feasibility study

The learners participated in two standardised bus crash simulations: without and with competence of TAS-triage and access to TAS-triage equipment. The instructors calculated triage accuracy and measured time consumption while the learners participated in a self-reported before-after study. Each question was scored on a 7-point Likert scale with points labelled "Did not work" (1) through "Worked excellent" (7).Among the 93 (85%) participating emergency service professionals, 48% confirmed the existence of a major incident triage system in their service, whereas 27% had access to triage tags. The simulations without TAS-triage resulted in a mean over- and undertriage of 12%. When TAS-Triage was used, no mistriage was found. The average time from "scene secured to all patients triaged" was 22 minutes (range 15-32) without TAS-triage vs. 10 minutes (range 5-21) with TAS-triage. The participants replied to "How did interdisciplinary cooperation of triage work?" with mean 4,9 (95% CI 4,7-5,2) before the course vs. mean 5,8 (95% CI 5,6-6,0) after the course, p < 0,001.Our modified triage Sieve tool is feasible, time-efficient and accurate in allocating priority during simulated bus accidents and may serve as a candidate for a future national standard for major incident triage.A major incident has occurred when incident location, severity, type or number of victims require extraordinary resources. Major incidents are heterogeneous by nature and their unexpectedness favours an "all-hazards" approach. Since rescue capacity varies within systems, a major incident for a rural emergency service may not apply to a larger urban emergency service [1]. Rapid access to advanced major incident management have proven to optimize resource use and improve patient outcome [2].Major incident management involves responders from multiple rescue services and it traverses geographical and jurisdictional lines. Further, it involves multiple tasks such as leadership, preparation, risk-evaluation