Green Tags, Black Tags: Where Readiness is concerned, how should YOU be tagged?

Green Tags, Black Tags: Where Readiness is concerned, how should YOU be tagged?

America became most familiar with the term “triage” when we tuned-in to watch M.A.S.H. Every M.A.S.H. Unit was a triage station where the physicians there would evaluate and categorize the wounded. In peaceful times, a triage unit can be utilized during a disaster when there are insufficient resources for medical care for everyone at once.

In mass casualty situations, triage is used to decide who is most urgently in need of transportation to a hospital for care (generally, those who have a chance of survival but who would die without immediate treatment) and whose injuries are less severe and must wait for medical care.

Triage is also commonly used in crowded emergency rooms and walk-in clinics to determine which patients should be seen and treated most urgently and it may be used to prioritize the use of space or equipment, such as operating rooms, in a crowded medical facility.

A system that has been used in mass casualty situation triage involves a color-coding scheme using red, yellow, green, white, and black tags:

Red tags - (immediate) This tag labels those who cannot survive without immediate treatment; chance of survival.

Yellow tags - (observation) This tag labels those who require observation (and possible later re-triage). Condition stable for the moment; not in immediate danger of death. These victims will still need hospital care and would be treated immediately under normal circumstances.

Green tags - (wait) This tag labels the "walking wounded" who will need medical care at some point, after those with more critical injuries have been treated.

White tags - (dismiss) This tag labels those with minor injuries for whom doctor's care is not required.

Black tags- (expectant) This tag labels the deceased and those whose injuries are so extensive that they will not be able to survive given the care available.

Where individual, family, business, church and community readiness is concerned, no one can determine how they would be “tagged” UNLESS they've been provided with enough information to form a conclusion. Would you be “black tagged”? I hope not.

Not everyone's preparation is adequately suited for everyone else. For example, those living near a fault line might consider keeping sandles at their bedside rather than slippers or bare feet. Why? In glass is broken throughout the house and you're trying to get outside, there's no sense in shredding your feet to ribbons. Too often, our own cozy confines can become a house of horrors during an emergency.

Another example? If you live where floods have, or could, occur, why not consider keeping an axe and a row boat in your attic? If your house ever becomes, literally, under water, bust a hole in your roof and float your boat. This may be a great preparedness plan for you in Louisiana, but not so much in Arizona.

If you aren't certain what your level of preparedness might be, that's all the more reason to attend the Preparedness PEACE Orientation, Tuesday, October 9^th , 3PM, The Chapel at Country Club Retirement Community. Admission is FREE. No children under 18 please. Workplace Chaplain Mike Tummillo will facilitate the presentation. Please RSVP to miketummillo@me.com with the letters “PREP” in your Subject Bar so we can be adequately prepared.