U.S. Hospitals Prepare Guidelines For Who Gets Care Amid Coronavirus Surge
Doctors in Italy are overwhelmed by coronavirus cases and prioritizing which patients get care. Many U.S. doctors could soon be making the same life-or-death decisions.
As COVID-19 spreads rapidly through the United States, many American doctors could soon be making the decisions that overwhelmed health care workers in Italy are already facing: Which patients get life-saving treatment and which ones do not?
Every accredited hospital in the U.S. is required to have some mechanism for addressing ethical issues like this â typically, an ethics committee made up of not just medical professionals, but often also social workers, pastors and patient advocates. Sometimes in partnership with hospital triage committees, they create guidelines for prioritizing patient care if there's a resource shortage.
