Table 1.

Severity levels example

Level	Generic Description	Description Based on Clinical Situation	S
Catastrophic	Death	Reasonable expectation of death in the absence of SMIa	5
Critical	Permanent impairment or life-threatening injury	Symptoms and signs, SMI required	4
Serious	Injury or impairment requiring professional medical intervention	Symptoms and signs; GMIb required	3
Minor	Temporary injury or impairment not requiring professional medical intervention	Symptoms	2
Negligible	Inconvenience or temporary discomfort; no injury	No symptoms or signsc	1

GMI, generic medical intervention; SMI, specific medical intervention.

^aSMI shall be determined by medical experts for each particular harm.

^bGMI consists of possible administration of corrective action by health professional according to procedures within the clinic, which may be administered with or without a physician's order (e.g., positioning of patient, administration of over-the-counter drugs).

^c“Symptoms” are subjective conditions that are felt/declared by the patient (e.g., headache, backache, dizziness). “Signs” are physiologic alterations that are objectively determined by the physician or health professional (e.g., hypotension, change in the electrolyte values, pulmonary edema).