undertriage

English

Etymology

under- +‎ triage

Noun

undertriage (countable and uncountable, plural undertriages)

1. (medicine) An inaccurately low prehospital triage value assigned to a set of symptoms or an injury, assessing it as being less severe or traumatic than it truly is; the administrative or societal burden caused by such miscalibration, such as strokes or heart attacks not recognized and treated quickly enough.

   Antonym: overtriage

   • 2015 August 1, “Trauma with Injury Severity Score of 75: Are These Unsurvivable Injuries?”, in PLOS ONE‎^[1], →DOI:

     However, our prior study on undertriage of major trauma patients indicated that a significant proportion of trauma patients with an ISS = 75 survived.

   • 2024 January 31, Jesse M. Pines, Robert D. Glatter, “Commentary: Why Everyone Needs Their Own Emergency Medicine Doctor: How Emerging Models Come Close to Making This Reality”, in Medscape Viewpoints‎^[2], retrieved 2024-02-07:

     As emergency medicine doctors, we regularly give medical advice to family and close friends when they get sick or are injured and don't know what to do. In a matter of moments, we triage, diagnose, and assemble a logical plan, whatever the issue may be. […] Frankly, it's a service everyone should have. Think about the potential time and money saved if this option for medical care and triage was broadly available. Overtriage would plummet. That's when people run to the emergency department (ED) and wait endless hours, only to be reassured or receive limited treatment. Undertriage would also decline. That's when people should go to the ED but, unwisely, wait. For example, this may occur when symptoms of dizziness end up being a stroke.

Verb

undertriage (third-person singular simple present undertriages, present participle undertriaging, simple past and past participle undertriaged)

1. To make such a misguided triage assessment.

   Antonym: overtriage