Triage Tags are a helpful tool used in human medicine to sort new emergencies.
We have digitized this concept into a red to blue (plus pink) triage color system in Instinct. This is designed to be completely flexible, allowing you to adopt it in your own way (you decide what each color represents at your hospital).
Below are a few examples of how these are being used in some hospitals:
Outpatient/OP Board:
(You might prefer to use only 3 or 4 – completely flexible and up to you)
Red – Needs immediate attention (arrest, major trauma, unresponsive, heavy bleeding)
Orange – Shouldn’t wait long (disoriented, distressed, broken limb)
Yellow – Somewhat stable/mildly abnormal vitals
Green – Stable patient/normal vitals
Blue – Not actually an emergency
Pink – Euthanasia or possible euthanasia
On the Inpatient/IP Board they can be used to communicate other things like:
Nurse assignments – each nurse is assigned a color per shift
Code status (Red = DNR, Green = full CPR)
Green – client has cost concerns
Pink – plan to euthanize
How to assign and sort them:
These tags can be found on the Status Board using the 3 dot menu to the left of each patient’s name.
The Status Board can also be sorted by these tags by selecting the “Sort by Triage Tag” button at the top of the In/Out column.
💡 ProTip: Fast Track tags can be applied to each color in instances when you have multiple cases within the same color triage status and you want to indicate one take precedence over another, by double-clicking the triage color. When the status board is then organized by triage these “Fast Track” patients will appear above other patients within the same color triage status.
