As COVID-19 cases continue to surge, over 100,000 hospital beds are no longer available across the U.S.
The situation has forced some states to implement triage and other limited critical care resources under "crisis standards of care," a last resort plan for rationing medical care during a catastrophic event. Ten states have reached their highest hospital admission in the recent weeks, outpacing the number of available health care workers.
"It's worse than ever, with — at this point — seemingly no end in sight," critical care doctor Kenneth Krell, who helps run an intensive care unit in eastern Idaho, told National Public Radio (NPR). "So by no means are we delivering a usual and customary standard of care."
The triage protocols would require that certain patients deemed less likely to survive may not get a bed in the ICU, and patients may have to be discharged from the hospital before they would normally go home, according to NPR. Some states had activated crisis standard plans earlier in the pandemic, with some plans including using an organ failure assessment scoring system to evaluate a patient’s chance of survival.
Additionally, under the crisis standard of care, nurses may be asked to treat and look after many more patients than is normally considered safe, NPR reported.
The country continues to average over 160,000 new coronavirus cases a day. The delta variant has been contributing to the rapid transmission of the virus, especially for those who remain unvaccinated.
