Multiple Patient Events and Mass Casualty Incidents — Determine number of patients that can be accepted — Clinical Pathway: Emergency Department

Multiple Patient Events and Mass Casualty Incidents Clinical Pathway — Emergency Department

Determine number of patients that can be accepted

How Many Patients Can We Accept When the City Calls?

The City of Philadelphia Office of Emergency management, as part of the city wide Mass casualty Incident Plan, will request the number of Priority 1 (Red Tag), Priority 2 (Yellow Tag), and Priority 3 (Green Tag) patients that the ED can accept. They will request this information for both actual events and monthly testing.

Our STOCK answer is:

  • 5 Red
  • 20 Yellow
  • 40 Green

After a HASTE Alert, the ED Charge Nurse and/or the Team 1 Attending will answer questions about how many patients will be accepted, based on what is happening in the ED at that time. You can estimate up or down from this standard response; use your best judgement based on existing patients, staff, and flow.

The Office of Emergency Management defines patients as follows:

Priority 1 (Red Tag)

Patients have an obvious threat to life or limb. They are the most critical and the top priority to be evacuated from the scene. Red tagged patients should be transported to nearby accredited trauma centers to avoid overloading those closest to the incident.

Priority 2 (Yellow Tag)

Patients are those clearly needing medical care but whose conditions should not deteriorate rapidly if treatment is delayed. These patients have significant injuries that require prolonged surgery and will require hospitalization. Yellow tagged patients will be transported to trauma centers and designated trauma-receiving general surgical hospitals.

Priority 3 (Green Tag)

Patients are those with abrasions, contusions, minor lacerations, etc. who have stable vital signs and for whom a delay in care, even for several days would not have an adverse effect. Hospitalization may not be required for these individuals. These patients should be transported to hospitals somewhat further away from the incident so that the closest hospitals can utilize their resources to manage the more serious red and yellow tagged patients.