What is the purpose of the National Trauma Triage Protocol chart?

• A. To help EMTs make faster decisions about patient care in an emergency
• B. To guide ambulance routes
• C. To record vital signs during transport
• D. To classify injuries by severity for billing

Answer: (A)

The chart is a quick, field-wide decision aid for trauma patients. It helps EMS providers rapidly assess injury severity and determine the most appropriate level of care and destination, so the patient gets the right treatment as fast as possible. By standardizing criteria—such as how the patient’s physiology, mechanism of injury, and obvious injuries influence triage—the protocol speeds up decisions and improves consistency in who needs to be transported to a trauma center. It’s focused on guiding care decisions and where to transport, not on routing streets, recording vitals for transport, or billing classifications.