text: Glossary
  patient estimate
  Estimates derived from the casualty estimate prepared by the personnel staff officer/assistant chief of
  staff, personnel. The patient medical workload is determined by the Army Health System support
  planner. Patient estimate only encompasses medical casualty. (ATP 4-02.55)
  patient movement
  The act of moving a sick, injured, wounded, or other person to obtain medical and/or dental treatment.
  (ATP 4-02.2)
  public health
  The science and practice of promoting, protecting, improving, and, when necessary, restoring the health
  of individuals, specified groups, or the entire population. As applied in the operational setting it is the
  preservation, maintenance, and restoration of health in Army populations through the anticipation,
  prediction, identification, surveillance, evaluation, prevention, and control of DNBI. (AR 40-5)
  *return to duty
  A patient disposition which, after medical evaluation and treatment when necessary, returns a Soldier
  for duty in his unit.
  stabilized patient
  A Patient whose airway is secured, hemorrhage is controlled, shock treated, and fractures are
  immobilized. (JP 4-02)
  *tailgate medical support
  An economy of force device employed primarily to retain maximum mobility during movement halts or
  to avoid the time and effort required to set up a formal, operational treatment facility (for example,
  during rapid advance and retrograde operations). (Currently the proponent is FM 4-02 but will be moved
  to ATP 4-02.3 when revised).
  theater evacuation policy
  A command decision indicating the length in days of the maximum period of non-effectiveness that
  patients may be held within the command for treatment, and the medical determination of patients that
  cannot return to duty status within the period prescribed requiring evacuation by the first available
  means, provided the travel involved will not aggravate their disabilities or medical condition. (ATP 4-
  02.2).
  *triage
  The process of sorting casualties based on need for treatment, evacuation, and available resources.