Ventilator Triage Policies During the COVID-19 Pandemic at U.S. Hospitals Associated With Members of the Association of Bioethics Program Directors
The COVID-19 pandemic has overwhelmed health care systems or threatens to do so, and many institutions are developing ventilator triage policies. Researchers from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center describe such policies developed at hospitals associated with members of the Association of Bioethics Program Directors. Read the full text: http://annals.org/aim/article/doi/10.7326/M20-1862.
An accompanying Ideas & Opinions piece by Thomas A. Bledsoe, MD, Janet A. Jokela, MD, MPH, Noel N. Deep, MD and Lois Snyder Sulmasy, JD, titled "Universal Do-Not-Resuscitate Orders, Social Worth, and Life-Years: Opposing Discriminatory Approaches to the Allocation of Resources During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Other Health System Catastrophes" is also published today in Annals of Internal Medicine. According to the authors from the American College of Physicians (ACP) Ethics, Professionalism, and Human Rights Committee, universal do-not-resuscitate (DNR) orders, social worth, and life-years approaches to rationing scarce resources are not fair and conflict with ethical principles, and should not be used during the COVID-19 pandemic or other health catastrophes. Read the full text: http://annals.org/aim/article/doi/10.7326/M20-1862.
Media contacts: PDFs for these articles are not yet available. Please click the links to read full texts. The lead author of Ventilator Triage Policies During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Armand H. Matheny Antommaria, MD, PhD, can be reached directly at armand.antommaria@chmc.org. The lead author of Universal Do-Not-Resuscitate Orders, Social Worth, and Life-Years, Lois Snyder Sulmasy, JD, can be reached through Edward Vassallo at EVassallo@acponline.org.
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Journal
Annals of Internal Medicine