For all of us who may complain about exercises, here’s a good “I told you so” story from Seattle!
Mike Carter of the Seattle Times writes that information gathered from those eerily prescient hearings is now informing draft crisis standards of care guidelines being prepared should that nightmare scenario become reality, COVID-19 patients overwhelm the state’s ability to care for them.
Two years ago, a panel of Washington hospital and health-care officials traveled the state asking residents to consider a nightmare scenario: If the state was hit with a pandemic that swamped the health-care system, how should we prioritize who should be treated and live, and who should be left to die?
In a series of seven public hearings, officials asked residents on both sides
of the Cascades what should and shouldn’t be considered when deciding who
should benefit from limited medical or emergency resources — such as
ventilators, drugs or personal protective equipment — and who should be given
comfort only, during their last hours.
There were debates about ethics and “social utility,” and “rich discussions”
before generally concluding that, if necessary, the old should be sacrificed
for the young and that health-care workers should be among the first people
saved, according to a 2019 state Department of Health (DOH) report summarizing
the findings.
The information gathered from those eerily prescient hearings is now informing
draft crisis standards of care (CSC) guidelines being prepared should that
nightmare scenario become reality, and a flood of sick and dying COVID-19
patients overwhelm the state’s ability to care for them.
“Our current data do not suggest that we will need to use CSC,” wrote state
health officer Dr. Kathy Lofy in a joint statement Thursday with Dr. Vicki Sakata,
an emergency room physician and chief medical adviser to the Northwest Health
Care Response Network, which is spearheading those preparations. “We continue
to hope for the best and prepare for the worst.”
It could be close.
“Many of the indicators would point to the fact that we are in a better
situation than a couple of weeks ago,” when discussions about CSC began in
earnest, the statement said. “However, we continue to plan for a significant
surge in COVID patients. We do not know exactly how strained our health care
system might be at the peak of activity.