After numerous warnings, Utah hospitals are preparing to ration care.
With soaring numbers of coronavirus cases, Utah hospitals have seen their ICUs reach dangerously high occupancy levels and have been forced to do the unthinkable: prepare to ration care. Under the Utah Crisis Standards of Care, protocols for deciding who gets ICU space or ventilators aim at doing the greatest good for the greatest number. In other words, some patients will have to be sacrificed to make room for others with better prospects of survival. It is hoped that the chilling guidelines will persuade Utahns to be more vigilant about limiting the spread of the virus.
Video Spotlight: Shortage of ICU Resources in Utah
This post is based on The Salt Lake Tribune article, Utah’s Hospitals Prepare to Ration Care as a Record Number of Coronavirus Patients Flood Their ICUs, by E. Alberty and S.P. Means, October 25, 2020, and the YouTube video, A Utah Infectious Disease Doctor on His State’s Coronavirus Crisis , by PBS NewsHour, October 26, 2020. Image source: Pordee_Aomboon / Shutterstock.
Discussion Questions:
1. What are the factors contributing to the high occupancy rates of ICUs? Why is it difficult to Continue reading