In a mass casualty event during an environmental disaster, which triage method is commonly used by EMS?

• A. START (Simple Triage and Rapid Treatment) or SALT protocols to categorize patients by injury severity.
• B. Jumpstart triage to prioritize the most seriously injured first.
• C. Triage by closest location to the scene only.
• D. Triage by age first, then injury type.

Answer: (A)

In mass casualty events, responders need a fast, repeatable way to separate those who require immediate life-saving care from those who can wait, so a standardized triage system is used. The approach commonly applied by EMS is START or SALT, which categorize victims by injury severity using a quick, structured assessment. START focuses on simple, rapid checks—breathing after an open airway, perfusion (pulse or capillary refill), and ability to follow simple commands—to assign urgency levels. This creates a straightforward tagging system that tells rescuers where to direct limited resources first. SALT does a similar job but adds a focus on sorting all patients quickly and performing lifesaving interventions as needed during triage, refining the prioritization process in chaotic scenes. Because these protocols are widely taught and practiced in EMS for large-scale incidents, they are the standard tools for triage in environmental disasters. The other options don’t reflect the established, widely used methods for rapidly triaging large numbers of patients.