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Tue Jan 29 14:38:13 GMT 2008

>From my prehospital experience those tags are a waste of time and money. Were it up to me, we would have a big cookout that was triage tag powered.

  Having said that and reading the other responses  have encountered a prehospital agency in the states that uses them on every patient. The logic being they then become familiar and commonly used, so both the hospital and prehospital staff are comfortable with them. 

  But here are my issues with them.

  1. They usually are not someplace that is handy. In a disaster looking for things not relating to patient care is not going to happen due to the already high demands on providers. 

  2. Many of the tags I used the triage person tore off the color that the patient was not. So since you could only tear off more, the patient could only worsen or you needed a new tag. (As if I didn't have enough to do, copying down info and making a new tag)

  3. There is never enough room to write on those tags, or the font is so small you a lense to read it.

  4. No matter what they are laminated with, they do not hold up to the wet and adverse conditions of the prehospital environment

  5. Patients always become seperated from the tags. Which creates an identification nightmare.  especially the ones that use bar codes or other such patient identifiers. Because when you make a new tag you have to reconcile what proceedures, tests, etc were done under the old one. there is confusion about identifying how many patients you have as well as who is where and did you lose somebody?

  what I have found works best is a 12 inch long piece of 2" diameter cloth tape. (sorry metric types, don't know if it converts or if you have somehting similar) It seems to stick well enough, doesn't become seperated as easy as the tags do. Ball point pen writes on it well. You can always add more tape. record times, as well as vitals and other notes. If the patient deteriorates or imrpoves you don't have to change the tape, just make a note on it. in one glance at the tape you can read the full story. granted it is not as pleasing to the eye as the nice color coded tags. But it is something readily available where I have worked, easy to use, and reliable. In addition the hospital staff doesn't need any special training to make it work for them.( I have been in one MCI/Disaster while working in hospital and countless while working in EMS)  A priority with a set of vitals, identifiers, and notes stuck to a patient seems to be friendly to all providers. Since it is tape it
 can also be easily replaced on the patient. for example, if it is stuck to his pants, you just peel it off real fast cut the pants, and stick it to the leg. (obviously as long as it doesn't cover the injury site) If it was, stick it to another part or even to the stretcher/bed they are on. Doesn't even interfere with any radiology. (thought somebody would find the humor in that) 

  I am not saying it is the best end all be all, just that it has worked when I have relied upon it. I haven't seen one marketed premade triage tag, system, clip, etc that I would pay for or suggest paying for. Color coded tape just as worthless because if you wrote all kinds of stuff on it, you need to copy it again everytime the patient priority changes. which may include having to track down the triage officer who has all the different color tape while you are tryng to treat multiple patients. 

  Mike 

Ruy Cabello-Pasini <ruycabello at yahoo.com> wrote:
  Just finished a loooong discussion with the director
of prehospital services at my institution (Mexican
Army), we are implementing a new prehospital report
but he insisted in using the triage tags (cards) but I
insisted on using those only for multiple victims. Is
anybody on the list aware of using just one report
for all patients including disasters? My opinion on
the matter is that if we put a lot of information on
the triage tags then the purpose of rapid filling of
the form is lost. Being in the army I could have
ended the discussion with a: look this is the way we
are going to do it! but I really want to have some
data or input from you experts on the matter, thanks a
lot in advance.

Ruy Cabello-Pasini MD, LTC
Trauma Surgeon

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Prehospital Report (vs Triage?)