This review discussed how clinical decision scores can be used to make decisions about ICU care in the COVID-19 pandemic and tests three scores in the current environment.

It’s very possible that the COVID-19 pandemic may overwhelm healthcare resources in particular areas. This includes personnel. In such cases, decisions will have to be made as to who should be admitted and cared for in ICUs.

Clinical decision scores can support such decision-making, but they will require adaptation to the pandemic and the patient being treated. The authors of this article discuss using clinical prediction scores for pneumonia severity at 3 main decision points to discuss how they might help decision makings in this domain. They compared data from a cohort of over 44,000 infected patients in China, including risk factors for mortality, to data from cohorts used to study the clinical scores. By doing so they were able to estimate the potential appropriateness of each score and how it might be used in the current environment.