Operationalizing Ethical Guidance for Ventilator Allocation in Minnesota: Saving the Most Lives or Exacerbating Health Disparities?

ABSTRACT: A statewide working group in Minnesota created a ventilator allocation scoring system in anticipation of functioning under a Crisis Standards of Care declaration. The scoring system was intended for patients with and without coronavirus disease 2019. There was disagreement about whether the scoring system might exacerbate health disparities and about whether the score should include age. We measured the relationship of ventilator scores to in-hospital and 3-month mortality. We analyzed our findings in the context of ethical and legal guidance for the triage of scarce resources.

Design

Retrospective cohort study.

Setting

Multihospital within a single healthcare system.

Patients

Five-hundred four patients emergently intubated and admitted to the ICU.

Interventions

SUBMITTER: Kesler SM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8202637 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature