title: The development and features of the Spanish prehospital advanced triage method (META) for mass casualty incidents.
abstract: This text describes the process of development of the new Spanish Prehospital Advanced Triage Method (META) and explain its main features and contribution to prehospital triage systems in mass casualty incidents. The triage META is based in the Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) protocols, patient's anatomical injuries and mechanism of injury. It is a triage method with four stages including early identification of patients with severe trauma that would benefit from a rapid evacuation to a surgical facility and introduces a new patient flow by-passing the advanced medical post to improve evacuation. The stages of triage META are: I) Stabilization triage that classifies patients according to severity to set priorities for initial emergency treatment; II) Identifying patients requiring urgent surgical treatment, this is done at the same time than stage I and creates a new flow of patients with high priority for evacuation; III) Implementation of Advanced Trauma Life Support protocols to patients previously classified according to stablished priority; and IV) Evacuation triage, stablishing evacuation priorities in case of lacks of appropriate transport resources. The triage META is to be applied only by prehospital providers with advanced knowledge and training in advanced trauma life support care and has been designed to be implemented as prehospital procedure in mass casualty incidents (MCI).
authors.affiliation: Unit for Research in Emergency and Disaster, Department of Medicine, Universidad de Oviedo, Oviedo, Spain.
authors.forename: Pedro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Arcos González
authors.affiliation: Unit for Research in Emergency and Disaster, Department of Medicine, Universidad de Oviedo, Oviedo, Spain. rafacastrosamu@yahoo.es.|SAMU-Asturias, Oviedo, Spain. rafacastrosamu@yahoo.es.
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Castro Delgado
authors.affiliation: Unit for Research in Emergency and Disaster, Department of Medicine, Universidad de Oviedo, Oviedo, Spain.|SAMU-Asturias, Oviedo, Spain.
authors.forename: Tatiana
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Cuartas Alvarez
authors.affiliation: Emergencias Osakidetza, País Vasco, Spain.
authors.forename: Gracia
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Garijo Gonzalo
authors.affiliation: Hospital de Martorell. Sistema Emergencies Médiques, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Martinez Monzon
authors.affiliation: Emergencias Osakidetza, País Vasco, Spain.
authors.forename: Nieves
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Pelaez Corres
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing Nuestra Señora de La Candelaria, Universidad de La Laguna, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain.
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rodriguez Soler
authors.affiliation: Hospital Universitario Gregorio Marañón, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Turegano Fuentes
mesh_terms: D004189:Disaster Planning / Q000458:organization & administration*; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D054527:Mass Casualty Incidents; D013030:Spain; D014218:Triage / Q000379:methods*