Journal of pediatric surgery
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In an effort to maximize staff utilization, all pediatric trauma patients were triaged by emergency room personnel to one of two tiers, based on information reported by prehospital providers over radiotelephones. A total of 952 patients less than 15 years of age were evaluated during a 1-year period. ⋯ All eventual deaths were initially captured from field data by the severely injured triage criteria. The study data suggest that physician-controlled two-tiered field triage criteria can safely serve to maximize staff utilization in the emergency room.