Triage Procedures for Critical Care Resource Allocation During Scarcity
Authors' conclusion
In this cross-sectional study of state-promulgated critical care triage policies, most plans restricted access to scarce critical care resources for patients with listed comorbidities and/or for patients with less-than-average expected postdischarge survival.
Study context
- Population
- State-endorsed pandemic preparedness plans with step-by-step triage instructions for critically ill patients, 50 US states, District of Columbia and Puerto Ricostate plans with triage procedures
- Participants
- 32 plans
- Outcome
- Prevalence and contents of comorbidity lists and their function in triage, and instructions to predict duration of postdischarge survival
Methodological detailsparallel internet searches, Searches conducted between November 25, 2021, and June 16, 2023
- Parallel internet searches
- Searches conducted between November 25, 2021, and June 16, 2023
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
- Plans with comorbidity lists
- 20 (63%)
- Comorbidity lists excluding patients
- 11 of 20 [55%]
- Comorbidity lists deprioritizing patients
- 8 of 20 [40%]
- Comorbidity list used to resolve ties between equal triage scores
- 1
- Plans considering predicted survival beyond hospital discharge
- 21 of 32 [66%]
- Numeric prognostic time horizons (6 months to 5 years after discharge)
- 15 of 21 (71%)
- Descriptive prognostic time horizons (e.g., long-term)
- 6 (29%)
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Original publication
Triage Procedures for Critical Care Resource Allocation During Scarcity. JAMA Netw Open. Published 1 August 2023. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →