Under-triage equals?

• A. Emergency response
• B. Non emergency response
• C. Routine response
• D. Delayed response

Answer: (B)

Under-triage happens when a patient’s true level of need is higher than what their initial assessment assigns, so they are given a less urgent dispatch than required. In EMS, fast, appropriate triage is crucial because life-threatening conditions need immediate intervention. When a serious condition is misclassified as non-urgent, the response is non-emergency, leading to potential delays in lifesaving care and worse outcomes. For example, someone with symptoms suggesting a heart attack or stroke should trigger an emergency response; assigning a non-emergency response would be under-triage. The other options describe different levels or consequences of response, not the misclassification itself: emergency response is too urgent for this mistake, routine response is a lower-priority classification but not the incorrect one by definition, and a delayed response is a consequence that can result from under-triage rather than the misclassification being described.