Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire WA State planning to determine who lives or dies if health care system overwhelmed

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/it-will-not-be-pretty-state-preparing-to-make-life-or-death-decisions-if-coronavirus-overwhelms-health-care-system/?utm_source=marketingcloud&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=BNA_032220010143+State+prepares+to+make+life-or-death+choices+%27It+will+not+be+pretty%27_3_21_2020&utm_term=

‘It will not be pretty’: State preparing to make life-or-death decisions if coronavirus overwhelms health care system

By Mike Carter
Seattle Times staff reporter
Washington state and hospital officials have been meeting to consider what once was almost unthinkable — how to decide who lives and dies if, as feared, the coronavirus pandemic overwhelms the state’s health care system.

“We don’t want to do it. We don’t think we should have to do it,” said Cassie Sauer, chief executive of the Washington State Hospital Association, which along with state and local health officials has been involved in refining what Sauer called a “crisis standard of care” — essentially guidelines to health care officials on who should receive treatment and who should be left to die.

“If we have to do this, then we want to do it in a fair and rational and thoughtful way,” Sauer said.

Dr. Vicki Sakata, the senior medical adviser to the Northwest Health Care Response Network, said a group of medical officials and other experts have been discussing how the state would deal with a crisis that overwhelmed the medical system. She prefers to add the word “planning” to the idea of “crisis standard of care” because, in her mind, the goal is to avoid a crisis in the first place.

That said, the state is prepared to act if it has to and has developed guidelines that will be implemented across the system, from the bedside doctor to hospital systems.

“We will do it as a state under an ethical framework that is part of the state plan,” she said. “It will be overseen by an objective team who has been thoroughly briefed on the protocols and processes, and will be undertaken in a transparent and equitable manner.

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“But, make no mistake, it will not be pretty,” said Sakata, who is a practicing emergency medicine physician. “That’s why we are taking the steps we are taking now, the social distancing, the hand washing, all of that, so sometime down the road nobody is left having to decide who gets resources, and who doesn’t.”

Sakata said her network, which comprises 15 Western Washington counties, has been working on crisis standard-of-care planning since 2012, and wanted to assure the public all efforts and resources are being aimed at managing the COVID-19 outbreak so the health care system doesn’t collapse under the strain of too many patients at once.

The orders restricting gatherings and urging people to practice social distancing are all aimed at slowing the outbreak and spreading the cases that do appear out over time so the system is not swamped.

Sauer said she was talking about the plan in hopes of convincing the federal government to release additional medical stores from the Strategic National Stockpile, where it keeps much-needed ventilators and other equipment necessary to treat the sickest of the COVID-19 victims.

“This is America,” she said. “We have resources. We should not be in this position.”

The New York Times reported on Friday that state and health care officials held a conference call to discuss the triage plan. It reported the plan will assess factors such as age, health and likelihood of survival in determining who will get access to full care and who will merely be provided comfort care, with the expectation they will die, the newspaper reported.

State Department of Health (DOH) officials told The Seattle Times on Friday they were meeting to further refine guidelines. DOH Director Dr. Kathy Lofy, in an email, acknowledged development of the crisis triage plan.

“Over the past several years, a group of clinical experts in the Puget Sound area developed guidance around how health care might need to be delivered differently during emergencies if supplies, staffing, and or hospital beds become limited,” Lofy wrote. “We are doing everything possible to slow the spread of the virus and increase resources within the health care system so that resources will be available for everyone who needs them.”

DOH spokeswoman Lisa Stromme said the department will release information on the triage guidelines soon, saying it is “one of our top priorities.

“However, it will not be discussed externally until we can discuss it internally in the right way,” Stromme said. “It’s too crucial.”

Sauer is concerned it is too early to determine whether the social distancing order by state and local officials and the shuttering of restaurants, schools and public places will effectively slow the spread of the virus. If not, Sauer said most projections indicate regional hospitals will be swamped with COVID-19 patients over the next several weeks.

Some projections put Seattle’s outbreak on the same scale, but just a few weeks behind, northern Italy, where on Thursday alone there were more than 5,300 new COVID-19 cases reported. Italy has reported 41,000 infections and more than 3,400 people have died, some because doctors there have had to make choices like Sauer and her colleagues were talking about in Seattle on Friday.

Sauer said the guidelines are being finalized and she hopes they are never implemented. If they are, then treatments will be allocated to “the greatest number of people who are likely to survive,” with others provided comfort care and allowed to die.

The decision will be made regionally, so no one doctor or hospital will have to make the decision, Sauer said. At that point, it is anticipated every hospital would be overcrowded and resources would be limited.

The coronavirus has proved to be particularly virulent among the aged and individuals suffering from underlying health problems. If a triage plan has to implemented, Sauer said, decisions will be mostly be based on people in those two categories.

“They will be less likely to receive care, and more likely to die” so people with a better chance of recovering can live, she said.

Obamacare death panels are a hoax

Yes another great promise from someone who promised you could keep your existing doctor and I give to America affordable health care.

A week ago Thursday (3/12) I mentioned my close friend's wife (a nurse with a practice in WA) was already alarmed and that the situation was getting out of control.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbt...ampfire-and-the-coronavirus#Post14655067

I have been getting daily updates from him. He is in the 911/public safety biz like me - we are both voluntarily quarantined at home and locked out of the office since we are critical assets.

I know it's all a joke here, but in WA, they are very concerned about having to decide who gets a vent and who dies in the hallway.

The military has been doing that for years on the battlefield. It's called triage, assigning level of care to severity of wound. They don't waste precious time and resources on perceived terminal cases. They treat the ones they think they can save.

Now, you don't see that in the civilian world, but who knows.

And, Obummer did have high level consultants who had done reseaerch and written papers on that subject. They were thinking out of the box, or should I say who went into the box....

DF

.

It’s only a joke to those who aren’t dealing with it yet....

https://komonews.com/news/coronavir...cale-of-outbreak-in-wash-says-top-doctor

Read that article, she says a tsunami is on its way....

What a perfectly delightful pack of monsters running the show. Might I assume they will check voter registration first?

Here in Washington? Of course they will.

Here is some good news from someone that has waited in line on the slab for priority patients, it hurts beyond comprehension and you’ll only die if God wants you home.

Just imagine what it must be like in NYC.

I suppose that's better than not planning on it.

No....party affiliation wouldn’t affect treatment priorities, would it?

Next you’ll suggest some states will soon enact a death tax.

I live on the West side of Puget Sound. Far away from the Freaks, Geeks, weirdo’s and queers. If this goes the way it very likely could, it’s going to turn into a complete chit show on the East side of Puget Sound. Not to mention Seattle has a huge, and I do mean huge homeless population. It gets a rolling through there, Yippee Kay Yah Mudder Fudder.

Stay safe.

Yeah, it's called triage. That's what happens when you have more patients than capacity to treat them.

Democrats....they are not worth spit.

Right on Q ...

NY State has 12,315 cases. NYC (just the five boroughs) have 6,166 confirmed cases alone. The NYC metro area is responsible for Terri vast majority of those 12K cases.

Intubation, along with the medically-induced coma, is something like 20 days, average?? Ain't enough ventilators, or staff, to handle what's coming.

The videos you posted in the other thread are terrifying.