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

From Critical Care Explorations. In this article, the authors note that the Ventilator Allocation Score can accurately identify patients with high rates of short-term mortality. However, these high mortality patients only represent 27% of all the patients who died, limiting the utility of the score for allocation of scarce resources. The score may unfairly prioritize older patients and inadvertently exacerbate racial health disparities through the inclusion of specific comorbidities such as end stage renal disease. Triage frameworks that include age should be considered. Purposeful efforts, the authors say, must be taken to ensure that triage protocols do not perpetuate or exacerbate prevailing inequities.

Kesler SM, Wu JT, Kalland KR, et al. 

 

Estimated Time: 22:27 min