Ten Second Triage A Novel and Pragmatic Approach to Major Incident Triage

The authors describe the Ten-Second Triage tool (Figure 1) developed to allow first responders to provide rapid triage assessment and potentially save more lives just after mass casualty incidents where victims outnumber responders. This tool allows responders to categorize patients as walking, talking, breathing (but not talking), or not breathing and check for central penetrating injury. By eliminating the formal physiological assessment and reducing the time required to perform triage, responders will be able to deliver key life-saving interventions rapidly to a large number of casualties without the "cognitive burden" associated with performing the arithmetic used in traditional triage.