Triage by Resource Allocation for INpatients: A Novel Disaster Triage Tool for Hospitalized Pediatric Patients

This study uses a computer simulation to show how triage decisions affect hospital capacity during mass casualty events. It found that better triage accuracy, especially reducing overtriage, significantly delays system overload and improves the ability of trauma teams to handle patient surges. As shown in workload curves (Figure 2), improved triage shifts capacity limits and allows hospitals to manage more patients before reaching saturation. For large incidents, switching to multi-step triage increases capacity but reduces care intensity for some patients. The findings highlight that accurate triage and clear prioritization are critical to managing limited resources during emergencies.