Balancing the Needs of Acute and Maintenance Dialysis Patients during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Proposed Ethical Framework for Dialysis Allocation.

ABSTRACT: The COVID-19 pandemic continues to strain health care systems and drive shortages in medical supplies and equipment around the world. Resource allocation in times of scarcity requires transparent, ethical frameworks to optimize decision making and reduce health care worker and patient distress. The complexity of allocating dialysis resources for both patients receiving acute and maintenance dialysis has not previously been addressed. Using a rapid, collaborative, and iterative process, BC Renal, a provincial network in Canada, engaged patients, doctors, ethicists, administrators, and nurses to develop a framework for addressing system capacity, communication challenges, and allocation decisions. The guiding ethical principles that underpin this framework are (1) maximizing benefits,

SUBMITTER: Carson RC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8425609 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature