SALT LAKE CITY — Utah State epidemiologist Dr. Angela Dunn responded to a new report that Utah's hospitals could soon be forced to ration care in Utah as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to strain the healthcare industry.
With new coronavirus cases shattering records on a daily basis, Utah’s hospitals are expected to begin rationing care in a week or two, The Salt Lake Tribune reports.
"This is NOT ok. It is maddening that we are planning to ration care in Utah. Unacceptable. We must do EVERYTHING we can to slow #COVID spread. No excuses," Dr. Dunn wrote in a tweet Monday morning.
That’s the prediction of Greg Bell, president of the Utah Hospital Association, who said administrators of the state’s hospitals confronted Gov. Gary Herbert on Thursday with a grim list: Criteria they propose doctors should use if they are forced to decide which patients can stay in overcrowded intensive care units.
Under the criteria, which would require Herbert’s approval, patients who are getting worse despite receiving intensive care would be moved out first. In the event that two patients' conditions are equal, the young get priority over the old, since older patients are more likely to die.
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