Ethics

This op-ed describes ways that existing guidance for rationing scarce resources in response to COVID-19 case surge may be discriminatory towards persons with disabilities and reflect harmful stereotypes. The author cites recent resource allocation guidance from the British Medical Association Read More

This article reports on the release of new crisis standards of care (CSC) guidelines by Colorado state health officials that address allocation of scarce resources if necessary during a public health emergency. Under the guidelines, hospitals would make decisions on Read More

This forthcoming article discusses the application of ethical principles to resource allocation in response to a public health crisis, such as COVID-19, emphasizing both the continuity of central ethical principles such as respect for persons and the increased relevance of Read More

This press release from the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announces the resolution of a complaint against Alabama based on the state’s 2010 ventilator allocation guidelines, which were challenged as Read More

This article reports on the Ohio Hospital Association’s adoption of new guidance for allocating scarce resources during a public health emergency, including recommending the use of a triage committee rather than bedside personnel to make allocation decisions. The guidance also Read More

This essay from Joseph J. Fins, one of the authors of New York’s 2015 guidelines on ventilator allocation during a public health emergency, contends that the Task Force’s guidelines should not be interpreted to authorize the commandeering of ventilators used Read More

This article reports on new guidelines from Massachusetts health officials for potential rationing of ventilators in the event COVID-19 case surge overwhelms available supply. According to the article, the guidance uses an 8-point scoring system based on a patient’s likelihood Read More

This forthcoming article from the Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine argues that, in allocating scarce resources, determining a patient’s potential to benefit from treatment should rely on a structured, evidence-based, and global assessment of frailty that accounts for more than Read More

This article reports on the potential that ventilators may be reallocated from long-term care facilities to hospitals to respond to resource scarcity due to COVID-19 case surge, including the controversial possibility of disconnecting ventilators currently in use by long-term ventilator-dependent Read More

This draft legal analysis addresses whether existing protocols for rationing scarce resources comply with moral principles and with anti-discrimination laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and concludes that existing approaches adopting a utilitarian approach will have the effect Read More