Incident Command
This nationwide framework standardizes how agencies prepare for, respond to, and recover from incidents (four letters).
What is NIMS (National Incident Management System) ?
This word means sorting patients by the severity of their injuries.
What is triage?
This triage system is the pediatric adaptation of START.
What is JumpStart?
The diamond-shaped signs on trucks and containers that give responders a general idea of the hazard inside.
What are placards?
Any agent or device meant to cause mass casualties or massive damage fits this three-letter category.
What is a WMD?
A patient with respiratory distress after opening a package of fine white powder should raise suspicion for this biological agent.
What is anthrax?
After a quick scene size-up, the first-arriving senior EMT at a multi-patient scene should do this.
What is establish command?
In START, the very first step is to call out and move these least-injured patients to a designated area.
What is the walking wounded (green tags)?
JumpSTART is intended for children under about this age (or who appear to weigh under ~100 lb / 45 kg).
What is 8 years old?
A hazardous material rated at this highest level requires gear built specifically to protect against that hazard.
What is level 4?
These chemical agents cause the classic signs of salivation, pinpoint pupils, and diarrhea.
What are nerve agents?
These three factors determine how well you're protected from a radiation source — and body size is NOT one of them.
What is time, distance, and shielding?
At a large incident, this section runs the tactical operations an incident commander would handle alone on a routine call.
What is the operations section?
This tag color marks the immediate, first-priority patients who need care right away.
What is red?
Unlike the adult system, JumpSTART adds this step for an apneic child who still has a pulse before tagging them expectant.
What is rescue breathes?
The process of removing or neutralizing a hazardous material from people and equipment.
What is decontamination?
A nerve agent like this one is highly persistent, lingering in the environment for weeks.
What is VX?
The severity of injuries from an explosion depends most on this.
What is the patient's distance from the blast (epicenter)?
This section is responsible for developing the incident action plan.
What is the planning section?
A triage supervisor's job is to sort patients and specifically NOT do this until everyone is triaged.
What is begin treatment?
This newer MCI triage system's name stands for Sort, Assess, Lifesaving interventions, and Treatment/transport.
What is SALT?
At a hazmat scene, your ambulance and staging belong in this clean, upwind/uphill zone.
What is the cold zone?
Multiple patients with sudden shortness of breath, chest tightness, and stridor after an exposure point to these choking/pulmonary agents.
What is phosgene or chlorine?
Arriving at a possible bombing or chemical release, you position your ambulance this way relative to the scene.
What is upwind and uphill?
These are the four general sections that can be built out under command at a large incident.
What are operations, planning, logistics, and finance/administration?
A non-breathing patient at an MCI is tagged this color — unless simply opening the airway restores breathing.
What is black (expectant/deceased)?
SALT's global first step sorts patients by asking them to do these two things on command.
What is walk, then wave (make purposeful movement)?
For a hazmat patient in respiratory distress you can safely reach, this is the airway support an EMT provides.
What is high-flow oxygen (12–15 L/min) via nonrebreathing mask?
These blistering agents — such as sulfur mustard and Lewisite — burn the skin, eyes, and airway on contact.
What are Vesicants (blister agents)?
A patient a moderate distance from a blast is likely to suffer this combination of injuries.
What is blast (pressure) injuries plus penetrating trauma from flying debris?