Development and validation of SALT Triage method to facilitate the identification and classification of patients in Mass Casualty Incidents

Mass Casualty Incidents (MCIs) have caused great financial losses. These incidents are referred to a situation in which the number of casualties caused by the accident temporarily increases to such an extent that it is not possible to treat all these patients with the facilities and capacities available in the area. To offer fair and proportionate medical services to all patients, it is necessary to use a process called patient triage. This study aimed to modify the Sort Assess Lifesaving Intervention Treatment/transport (SALT) triage method to simplify the differentiation of patients from green from yellow and gray from red.

This is a methodological study with a descriptive cross-sectional approach that by studying the SALT triage method and using the criteria defined in the Reference Standard, facilitates the identification of patients with a minor (Outpatient) and fatal injury (Expectant). Then, using two common and modified SALT triage methods, 100 simulated patients were triaged and the obtained data were evaluated and compared in terms of accuracy and speed.

The improvement made in the SALT triage method was able to reduce 22% of the total triage error of the first nurse and improved 18% in green, 43% in yellow, 15% in red, and 13% in the gray category. In the second nurse, this method was able to reduce 29% of the errors and in the category of green patients, 41%, yellow 47%, red was unchanged, and gray 38% improvement was observed. Furthermore, the average triage rate was 4 and 5 seconds shorter per patient in the first and second nurses, respectively.

With this modification, the diagnostic power has increased by 22% in the first nurse and 29% in the second nurse. Due to the significant increase in the accuracy of the mSALT (Modified SALT) triage method, this modification can be considered useful and can be used to advance the goals of triage in MCIs.