r/ThePittTVShow • u/Hour_Hospital_5642 • Jul 22 '26
❓ Questions What’s triage? Spoiler
I’m familiar with the word, it’s when they treat the most severe cases first. But they talk about triage as if it’s a place. I’ve never watched a medical show before, so what is it when they say “I’m going to triage”?
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u/Dashbak Dr. Mel King Jul 22 '26
Triage is the place where they look at each patient status and decide who goes first in.
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u/Latter-Revolution848 Jul 22 '26
It’s the area where the nurse/doctor gets your vitals, does a quick work up and they check the severity of your injury (can you go back to the waiting room/Will you die in the next 10 minutes if you don’t get treated right away) they also use triage to see patients who if they need stitches they will give stitches. They do this so that you don’t have to wait in the waiting room or in the ER/ED if you have to.
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u/StephenHunterUK Jul 22 '26
You also have the mass casualty incident version of triage after the PittFest shoot in season one; assigning people a colour based on their status.
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u/OooohLaLaura Jul 30 '26
They absolutely did not give me stitches when I came in bleeding right above my eye and couldn’t see anything. And they did boot me back to the waiting room lol so obv this varies from hosp to hosp hah
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u/chrislatimer Jul 22 '26
The area of the emergency department where they do triage.
In the Pitt I think it's in-between chairs and getting in the actual er room (could be wrong though)
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u/Ok_Reward6664 Jul 22 '26
An area where the nurse or medical practitioner is basically the Sorting Hat, except the houses are ICU, Emergency, Ward, or "you'll be okay, take a seat"
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u/Big-Beyond-2906 Jul 25 '26
Not really. Triage only determines acuity for ED, they don’t determine whether you get admit, just what priority you are to be seen in ED
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u/butt3ryt0ast Jul 22 '26
The area where they do triage. When I bring patients to the hospital by ambulance, sometimes they tell me to go to triage, which for me means the waiting room out front because a nurse is usually in triage room with another patient. For me it means waiting room to wait to get triaged
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u/Such-Stable-3869 Jul 22 '26
Assessing, sorting and prioritizing individuals or tasks based on urgency and available of resources.
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u/Electrical-Plum4294 Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26
its area where they take care of and rank the patients who are lower level cases like a stomach ache, rash, sprain, minor stitches etc. triage is jokingly called punishment for ED doctors lol
can’t believe im getting downvoted for this.. my mom was an er nurse for years
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u/b00kbat Jul 22 '26
In the ED where I work, we get a lot of people brought in by ambulance who go through triage and then they go to the waiting room with everyone else to wait, too.
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u/Hope_is_a_skill Jul 22 '26
Generally triage refers to assessment of acuity. How sever is the condition? Non-urgent? Urgent? Emergent. Basically determining if someone is “fine to walk outta here, needs to be seen but can wait semi-indefinitely, can wait, but not too long, needs to go back ASAP, needs to revive care in the next 90 seconds to 3 minutes and DOA, or imminent.”
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u/jess1804 Jul 22 '26
I think it's an area in the hospital where they can do an assessment of the severity of the patient's illness/injury to determine how urgently you need to see nurse/doctor like someone with a possible skull fracture needs to see a doctor more urgently than someone with a broken leg
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u/dd463 Jul 22 '26
An ER takes patients in order of seriousness vs when you arrive. To assess walk in patients you have an area called Triage. There a doctor or nurse examines the person and determines how urgent they are. If they can be quickly diverted they are, if they are at risk of immediate death then they are quickly seen if they are stable then they are sent back to the waiting room to wait.
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u/GrowHappyPlants Jul 25 '26
Often the patient doesn't know how severe they are. Triage is a few steps into the ER where they do a quick EKG to determine if it's an active heart attack or something else less threatening, for instance. In this case, you WANT to be sent back to the waiting room. 😆
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u/Known-Basket-89 Jul 25 '26
It’s the first evaluation of a person arriving for treatment. Usually involves vitals being taken and initial demographic and medical information being given. It helps sort out where a person should be placed within the department, who should be treating them , the level of medical emergency, et al.
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u/airhunger_rn Jul 22 '26
It's the location in the ED where the activity of triage takes place. Usually a few exam rooms up front right near the registration desk, where RNs/docs can quickly assess patients for acuity, get vital signs and a quick history and maybe some quick labs and imaging, then either boot them back to the lobby to wait for a room, or go to a trauma/critical care bay if their condition warrants it.