hey everyone it's sarah thread sterner sorry and.com and in this lecture we're going to talk about the color-coded tag system and the start method used in disaster triage and as always whenever you get done watching this YouTube video you can access the free quiz that will test you on this content so let's get started the word triage means to group or rank and in the healthcare system we triage patients for instance in the ER patients come to the ER seeking care and they will be triage hints grouped or rank based on what they're presenting with their signs and symptoms and if they're really bad off they will be seen immediately however if they don't really meet that criteria their treatment will be delayed and the patient will have to wait a little bit until they are seen however in this lecture what we're talking about is triage in a disaster situation because whenever you have a disaster you have many wounded coming to you that need treatment however you're very limited on your personnel and your resources to treat those people so you have to use them very wisely and that is where triage comes in handy specifically the color code tag system because it's going to tell us which patients should be seen first and it tells us what type of injuries would fall into certain colors so for exams what you want to know is all these colors there's four of them a patient will fall into one of them who seemed first who has highest priority and what type of injuries you may see with each color and we use that color code tag system but we also use a tool to help us determine which color the person will be tagged and that is called the start method and we will be going over that here in a moment as well so first let's talk about the color coded tag system there are four possible colors a patient could be tagged we have red yellow green or black now to help you keep this information straight for exams because some people get confused on red yellow and green like who has highest-priority let's think of a traffic light because with black that's easy to remember the color black is associated with death and these patients are dying or have died so with a traffic light most traffic lights have red yellow and green so think about what you're supposed to do whenever you see each light color so when we see a red on a traffic light what does that mean that means stop and so these patients who are tagged red they are considered immediate they need immediate treatment right there so they are seen first they have highest priority and the reason is is because their injuries are life-threatening however they are survivable possibly if we can get them treatment right and then and there and these patients are gonna have severe alteration in their breathing their circulation their neuro situs Mental Status so they're gonna have some issues but if we can get them treatment we've compiled a increase their chances of survival now what are some conditions that may have a person tagged as red well CA conditions that's going to alter these things where a patient needs treatment right there or they're going to die so think of things like severe spinal cord injuries because our spinal cord certain areas of a controller respiratory system or circulation so think of patients who are going into shock like neurogenic shock cardiogenic shock also patients who have severe bleeding whether is internally externally but we can get the patient get that corrected stop that bleeding transfuse them we can increase their chances of survival or patients who have significant burns on their body this can alter their circulation for sure along with their respiratory status depending on where the burn is located also any type of really severe respiratory trauma or you have collapsed lungs as well then we have the tag color yellow and where are you supposed to do it a traffic light when it turns yellow you're supposed to slow down delay because you're about to have to stop so patients who are tagged their treatment is delayed for a little bit so they have second highest priority now they have injuries and these injuries are serious and significant but as of right now at that point their breathing circulation mental / neuro status is within normal range however eventually that is going to change because their injuries are serious so right now we can delay their treatment because these patients up here need to be seen that are red but it doesn't need to be delayed too long so usually about an hour or so but the patient needs to be seen so they can be treated so we don't have alteration in our breathing circulation neuro / Mental Status and this includes patients who have like a major bone fracture that needs treatment or some type of integumentary issue like an open wound deep laceration etc next is a tag color green and what do you do at a traffic light when it's green you go so a lot of these patients who are tagged green they're sometimes termed as the walking wounded so these patients can get up and they can go so they are considered minor they have very minimal injuries these injuries are not life-threatening and their breathing circulation neuro status is not expected to really change so we can delay their treatment for several several hours and sometimes these patients can actually treat themselves so self care and then lastly we have the tag color black and black patients who are tagged this we consider this expectant so they are in the process of dying or they have expired died and their injuries are so deadly to the point that they're just not going to survive so you have absence of that breathing circulation neuro / Mental Status so now let's talk about this start method which is used to help us assign a tag color to a wounded individual during a disaster situation and the word star actually stands for simple triage and rapid treatment in this particular start method that we're going over in this lecture is for the adult patient and it's very quick and easy to use so the first thing what you want to do is you want to look at that wounded individual and you want to see what they're doing are they up able to move walk around or are they unable to do that if they are able to walk that tells you right there that this patient is breathing they have circulation and they have a neuro system mental status is there so you're automatically going to tag that patient green this will be the only time that a patient will be green now the other part of this method is for patients who are unable to walk and they're either going to be tagged red yellow or black and you're going to be looking at three things in this particular order you're going to be looking at their breathing their circulation and their neuro / mental status so first breathing what you're going to be looking at is if they're breathing and if so what is the rate of breaths so let's say yes the person's breathing but their respiratory rate is greater than 30 we know in an adult a normal respiratory rate is about 12 to 20 breaths per minute so if it's greater than 30 something is definitely going on with this person and they need immediate treatment fast because they are not doing it so they are going to be tagged red let's say they are breathing but the respiratory rate is less than 30 well we will proceed and check their circulation but let's say they're not breathing what you want to do is quickly reposition that airway and reassess if they're breathing if they're not they are going to be tagged black let's say reposition that airway they do start breathing they have spontaneous breaths well this tells us this patient isn't doing good they're only breathing because we reposition their airway so they do need immediate treatment so they're going to be tagged red now we're going to look at circulation and what we're looking for is a positive radial pulse or if they have a capillary refill less than 2 seconds those things really tell us our patient is perfusing which is a good thing so let's say yes they have this we will proceed and check their neuro / mental status if they don't have this this tells us that something is wrong so we will tag them red then lastly we're gonna look at their neuro / Mental Status and what you're doing with this is you're seeing if they can obey or follow your commands so let's say that yes they can do that well we're gonna tag them yellow if they cannot do this they would be tagged red so let's quickly recap the start method so a patient is only going to be tagged green with this method if they are up and able to walk around because this tells us they're breathing they're circulating and they have a mental status neuro system that is working and that's for patients who are only walking now patients who are unable to walk they're either going to be red yellow or black now they will be red if they have the following issues they're breathing but that respiratory rate is greater than 30 or if they weren't breathing at first you reposition their airway and then all of a sudden they were breathing they would be red if they don't have a radial pulse or their capillary refill is greater than 2 seconds they would be red or if they're unable to follow your commands now patients only going to be tagged black you check that breathing they're not breathing when you reposition that airway they would be tagged black and they will only be tagged yellow if they do if they're breathing it's less than 30 and they do have a circulation and they can follow your commands whenever you're assessing their mental status okay so that wraps up this video over the color-coded tagging system and the start method used during a disaster situation and don't forget to access the free quiz that will test you on this content