National Guidelines for the Field Triage of Injured Patients

The 2021 National Guidelines for the Field Triage of Injured Patients or “Guidelines” are now available. A multidisciplinary expert panel led by the American College of Surgeons (ACS) undertook this revision with support from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Maternal and Child Health Bureau, and EMS for Children Program.

For three decades, the Guidelines have been widely adopted by trauma systems in the United States to support decision making by EMS clinicians in transport destination determinations for injured patients. The goal has been to ensure that seriously injured patients are transported to the most clinically appropriate trauma centers. 

The 2021 revision was based on a scientific literature review conducted by Oregon Health and Science University as well as the results from a broad stakeholder feedback tool, which aimed to capture the perspective from those in the field.

National Guideline for the Field Triage of Injured Patients: Recommendations of the National Expert Panel on Field Triage, 2021
Journal of Trauma Surgery

Resources

The ACS, in collaboration with partner organizations, has developed a series of resources and implementation tools for use by providers and EMS and trauma system leadership.

The following manuscripts have been published describing the evidence and process for revision of the Guidelines.

• The National Trauma Triage Protocol: How EMS Perspective Can Inform the Guideline Revision
• Under-Triage and Over-Triage Using the Field Triage Guidelines for Injured Patients: A Systematic Review 
• National Guideline for the Field Triage of Injured Patients: Recommendations of the National Expert Panel on Field Triage, 2021
• Mechanism of Injury and Special Considerations as Predictive of Serious Injury: A Systematic Review

Additional resources:

• Printable Handout
• Word Document version of Guideline to be Adapted by Local Trauma and EMS Systems

Contact Information

If you have any questions, please contact traumasystems@facs.org.

Many of the resources on this page are in an editable format to allow adaption by local trauma and EMS systems; however, the field triage guideline criteria should not be altered. These criteria are evidence-based and have undergone a rigorous expert panel review. These materials may not be distributed, resold, nor used to create revenue-generating content by any entity other than the ACS without the express written permission of the ACS.

​Copyright © 2022 by the American College of Surgeons (ACS), Chicago, IL 60611-3295. All rights reserved.