Doctors in North Texas considered taking COVID-19 patients' vaccination status into account

[MisterNiceKitty]

Last edited Tue Aug 24, 2021, 04:52 PM - Edit history (1)

when determining who got ICU beds

https://www.businessinsider.com/texas-doctors-considered-making-icu-decisions-based-on-vaccination-status-2021-8

Ashley Collman Aug 20, 2021

"A North Texas doctors' group said in an email to members this week that vaccination status could be taken into account when determining which COVID-19 patients get beds in intensive-care units if the region experiences another crisis.

The memo from the North Texas Mass Critical Guidelines Task Force was leaked to The Dallas Morning News, which published details about it on Thursday.

The memo boiled down to this: Since vaccination vastly improves a person's chance of surviving COVID-19, a patient's vaccination status could count as a plus or a strike when determining whether they get an ICU bed, though it could not be the sole factor.

The guidelines were designed for a Level 3 crisis stage, which Dr. Robert Fine, a co-chair of the task force, told The Dallas Morning News could happen in two weeks. The task force's guidelines are not enforceable but are generally followed, the newspaper said.

Shortly after The Dallas Morning News published its story, a spokesperson for the task force walked back the memo.

Dr. Mark Casanova, the director of clinical ethics for Baylor University Medical Center, had told NBC Dallas-Fort Worth on Thursday that the memo was meant to help guide doctors in triaging patients in limited situations.

Hours later, he told NBC the memo was merely a "homework assignment" that members could respond to with their own suggestions.

He said that going forward, vaccination status would not be among the factors that hospitals would be told to consider when triaging patients.

"In the midst of this reconvening, and exploration and discussion with various triage committee members, the consensus is vaccination status, or more specifically a lack of a vaccine will not be considered as part of any exclusion criteria for treating patients," he told the outlet.

[viva la]

1. Well, someone who will recover quickly

frees up an ICU bed when they move to a step-down unit.

It's absurd we're forcing hospitals to this point. Not "we"-- the unvaxxed unmasked people who won't protect themselves at all but will expect intense care when they show up near death.

[Stinky The Clown]

2. In a word . . .

. . . GOOD.

[Grins]

3. Dr. Harald Schmidt may very well be correct, but...

“…those included not having the means to get to vaccination appointments and having a distrust of medical authorities as a person of color.”

But that doesn’t help solve the problem of standing room only emergency rooms and ICU’s with lines waiting for an opening.

Ever see the movie “Lifeboat”?

[Mad_Machine76]

4. Eh......

As much as unvaxxed people disturb me, I don't know if I would ever feel good about denying them or basing their priority on whether or not they're vaxxed. If and when they recover, I think that doctors should talk to them about getting vaxxed as soon as it's medically safe for them to do so as part of their dx planning.

[MisterNiceKitty]

5. quite agree

[fescuerescue]

6. I could imagine that the families will just start lying about vax status

If this becomes common knowledge and If it means their family member get's a life saving ICU bed.

Sure the hospital might ask for the paperwork, but the family would just say "yes its at his house somewhere...."

That's probably why they are walking back that announcement.

[Mariana]

7. I would think vaccinated people are more likely to survive.

Wouldn't that make it reasonable to consider patients' vaccination status, if there aren't enough beds to go around?