State Governments Propose Rationing Care During COVID-19 Second Wave

State governments are reportedly considering asking hospitals to consider rationing care amid concerns that the second wave of coronavirus cases is overwhelming health care systems, and New Mexico and Idaho may be the first to take action on the plan if cases in those states do not decline, according to local media. . .

“A medical dam-break had been part of repeated warnings by state officials for weeks as COVID-19 counts surged in October and November,” the Santa Fe New Mexican reported. “The human toll includes health care workers — at least 18 have died since the crisis began earlier this year, state Human Services Department Secretary David Scrase said during a separate news conference with Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham later in the day.”

Grisham ultimately noted that she would encourage some hospitals, particularly rural hospitals, to reroute coronavirus patients to larger hospitals in nearby major cities, where the intensive care unit (ICU) capacity is higher. She also suggested that hospitals could move to “crisis standards of care,” which may involve rationing care or putting patients on wait-lists if their issues are less serious. . .

“I think it’s more probable than not that in the next two to four weeks, we will find ourselves’ at a point of needing to ration care due to COVID-19,” one hospital director told a board of health in Boise, noting that there are no signs of the “second wave” letting up, and hospitals could be overwhelmed through January.

Like New Mexico, though, the state of Idaho would have to allow for “crisis standards of care,” and Idaho’s governor, Brad Little, would have to approve the change. “At that point, a scoring system would determine which patients receive life-saving care,” the Statesman notes, and care for non-COVID patients could be delayed indefinitely. (Read more from “State Governments Propose Rationing Care During COVID-19 Second Wave” HERE)

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