Triage (n)

Triage - A process for sorting injured people into groups based on their need for or likely benefit from immediate medical treatment; A system used to allocate a scarce commodity, such as food, only to those capable of deriving the greatest benefit from it.

I think the first time I heard this word was recently during the Katrina news. Basically, if you've ever gone to the emergency room for a cut knee and had to wait four hours to get a band-aid, then you've been a victim of a triage system whereby the people with more serious injuries got seen first because of the limited caregivers on staff.