1. ON-SCENE ARRIVAL AND TEAM ORGANIZATION: Report to the Incident Commander for a briefing before any triage activity begins. Move the team to a designated safe staging area, assign roles (Triage Officer, Scribe, CCP Manager), don all four Safety Vests, and distribute clipboards, triage tags, and pencils to each team member.
2. ESTABLISH CASUALTY COLLECTION POINTS: Coordinate with the Incident Commander to identify a single, large, safe location for all four CCPs, positioned upwind and uphill from hazards with clear ambulance access. Use the four rolls of colored triage tape and 12 ground stakes to construct four adjacent zones: RED (Immediate), YELLOW (Delayed), GREEN (Minor), and BLACK (Morgue). Announce CCP locations to all responding personnel on scene.
3. CONDUCT PRIMARY TRIAGE SWEEP: Begin a systematic sweep of the incident area. Issue the verbal command: "Everyone who can hear my voice and can walk, move to the green area marked by the green tape." This self-evacuates ambulatory MINOR casualties. Assess all remaining non-ambulatory victims using the START protocol, evaluating Respiration, Perfusion, and Mental Status (RPM).
4. LIMIT INTERVENTIONS DURING SWEEP: During the primary sweep, restrict all interventions to opening an airway or applying a tourniquet to a victim with massive hemorrhage, and only if you are equipped and trained to do so. Do not stop to provide further treatment. The objective is to assess and categorize all casualties as rapidly as possible.
5. APPLY TRIAGE TAGS TO ALL VICTIMS: Attach a triage tag to every victim assessed, including those who self-evacuated to the GREEN area. Secure the tag to the wrist, ankle, or clothing near the neck in a conspicuous location. Use a pencil under normal conditions or a grease pencil in wet or adverse conditions to document required victim information, then tear off all perforated color tabs except the one corresponding to the victim's assessed triage category.
6. DIRECT MOVEMENT TO CCPS: As victims are tagged, direct designated litter teams or other available responders to move each victim to the appropriate color-coded CCP. Triage Officers do not stop to move patients. Their role is to continue assessing and tagging all remaining victims without interruption.
7. INITIATE MASTER PATIENT LOG: Once all victims are in CCPs, the Triage Leader or designated Scribe opens the 37-page triage book on a clipboard and begins building the master patient log. Record every triage tag number, each victim's category, and their current disposition, including whether they are awaiting transport or have been transported to a specific facility.
8. CONDUCT SECONDARY TRIAGE: As treatment teams become available, begin a more thorough head-to-toe assessment of casualties within the CCPs, starting with RED (Immediate) victims. Reassess and update triage categories as patient conditions change, and update the master patient log accordingly.
9. POST-DEPLOYMENT RESTOCK AND INSPECTION: Immediately following any incident or drill, replace all consumed items, primarily triage tags and used triage tape. Clean reusable components including vests, clipboards, and ground stakes per your agency's decontamination policy. Repack all items in the exact same configuration and return the carry bag to its designated, climate-controlled storage location.
---
