January 23, 2009 / Vol. 58 / No. RR–1
Guidelines for Field Triage of Injured Patients
Recommendations of the National Expert Panel on Field Triage

In the United States, injury is the leading cause of death for persons aged
1-44 years, and the approximately 800,000 emergency medical services (EMS) providers have a substantial impact on care of injured persons and on public health. At an injury scene, EMS providers determine the severity of injury, initiate medical management, and identify the most appropriate facility to which to transport the patient through a process called “field triage”. In 1987, the American College of Surgeons developed the Field Triage Decision Scheme (Decision Scheme), which serves as the basis for triage protocols for state and local EMS systems across the United States. Since its initial publication in 1987, the Decision Scheme has been revised four times. In 2005, with support from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, CDC began facilitating revision of the Decision Scheme by hosting a series of meetings of the National Expert Panel on Field Triage, which includes injury-care providers, public health professionals, automotive industry representatives, and officials from federal agencies. The Panel reviewed relevant literature, presented its findings, and reached consensus on necessary revisions. The revised Decision Scheme was published in 2006. This report describes the process and rationale used by the Expert Panel to revise the Decision Scheme.

DOWNLOAD ISSUE

November 28, 2008 / Vol. 57 / No. SS–13
Abortion Surveillance
United States, 2005

CDC began conducting abortion surveillance in 1969 to document the number and characteristics of women obtaining legal induced abortions. This report is based on abortion data for 2005, provided voluntarily to CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Division of Reproductive Health.

For 2005, CDC compiled data that were voluntarily provided from 49 reporting areas in the United States: 47 states (excluding California, New Hampshire, and Louisiana), the District of Columbia (DC), and New York City (NYC). Legal induced abortion was defined as a procedure, performed by a licensed physician or someone acting under the supervision of a licensed physician, that was intended to terminate a suspected or known intrauterine pregnancy and to produce a nonviable fetus at any gestational age. The total number of legal induced abortions was available from all reporting areas; however, not all of these areas collected data on some or all characteristics of women who obtained abortions, and the availability of such data varied by reporting area. Abortion data were compiled using suggested table shells that were sent to the reporting areas. Not all reporting areas used the suggested tables.

DOWNLOAD ISSUE