mplex or special health care needs is not a new
concept. Its origin can be traced to the sorting or
triage of battlefield injuries into levels of severity to
determine the need for rapid transport decisions.
Surgeons caring for injured soldiers during the Korean
and Vietnam conflicts came to the realization
that a systems approach to reducing injury to operating
room time could reduce mortality. Battlefield
sorting of injury severity, rapid transport when
necessary, and the development of Mobile Army
Surgical Hospitals were the first rudimentary attempts
at regionalizing care. When battlefield aid
stations were bypassed to get seriously and critically
injured patients rapidly to definitive care, it
was similar to the bypassing of community hospi-