On 12 January 2010 Port-au-Prince, Haiti was struck by a 7.0 Mw earthquake that devastated the city and destroyed much of the Haiti University and Educational Hospital. In the following weeks, a tent hospital was erected at the site and hundreds of patients were seen daily by expatriate healthcare volunteers. The high volumes of patients, disorganized hospital grounds, and high levels of stress among patients led to issues of crowd control.

To improve security a new triage system was designed and implemented based on current emergency medicine models. This design addressed patient flow, triage, environmental conditions, and differentiation of emergency services. The results of this system were a streamlined triage system as well as improved safety.

During the chaos following the Haiti earthquake, a triage design was implemented at the HUEH that lead to improved Emergency Department patient flow and hospital safety.