[aladoc99]

'The simplest definition of a "mass casualty incident" is when you need more resources than you have.'

This definition is an example of the logical fallacy called begging the question. Nobody would deny that an incident that brings 250 gunshot victims to one center is a "mass casualty." The brilliance of Dr. Menes's approach is that he did not immediately assume insufficient resources. He didn't say this, but it appears to me that he proceeded under the thought that with careful planning and ingenuity, they might have just enough resources. This redefines triage from a rigid algorithm to something like "the optimal deployment of available resources to maximize the utility for as many as possible."

[JshWright]

They in no way had adequate resources to handle that event. Not even close. A hundred of those patients would have qualified as a trauma code on a "normal" day, and would have had the dedicated attention of a dozen people during their initial arrival and stabilization. In this case they were lucky if they got the undivided attention of a single person.

They made do with what they had (very efficient, and very effectively), but the scope of the incident vastly outsized the scope of the available resources.

Your description of triage is great. The algorithm (based on a fair amount of research) is one part of maximizing that utility (it doesn't stand in the way of accomplishing that).