Drs. John L. Hick and Daniel T. O'Laughlin of University of Minnesota propose a concept of operations and a set of suggested guidelines for triage of mechanical ventilators in a pandemic or bioterrorist attack. "When a large-scale pandemic does occur, we're simply going to run out of resources," comments Dr. Hick. "We need to be talking now about how we are going to allocate scarce resources to the patients most likely to benefit from them."
Drs. Hick and O'Laughlin developed their proposal after a recent drill showing that an epidemic affecting ten percent of the Minneapolis area would lead to a "rapid and critical shortfall" in the supply of mechanical ventilators. "Despite a surge capacity of between 2,500 and 3,500 beds in the area, there were 16 ventilators available in our regional system," says Dr. Hick.
The proposal calls for a set of general guidelines to be developed in advance by a team of public health officials and medical experts. The guidelines would be subject to review by a separate group, including elected officials and members of the public.
The guidelines would be arranged in tiers--as resources are exhausted, another, more stringent set of criteria would come into effect. At each level, the criteria would be based on clinical indicators of the patient's chances or survival and likely use of health care resources, with the objective of directing scarce resources to the patients most likely to benefit.
In a crisis, the guidelines would rapidly
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Contact: Linda Gruner
l.gruner@elsevier.com
212-633-3923
Elsevier
24-Jan-2006