Since the start of the pandemic, hospitals have been consistently overrun with patients fighting the COVID-19 virus. With the newest variant spreading fast throughout the state of Oregon, hospitals are facing the daunting task of having to make the difficult decision about who will get a bed and who will not.
Good Samaritan Hospital in Corvallis currently has 18 patients in the hospital with COVID-19, with a seven-day running average of about 22. The number of COVID-19 inpatients has increased in recent weeks. At the end of December the seven-day running average number of inpatients was about 11, according to Mark Ylen, Public Information Officer for Samaritan.
“These numbers change by the hour. Currently we have 140 patients in beds at Good Samaritan and our ICU is at capacity,” said Ylen. “As of noon Thursday, we are on divert – meaning we have no other staff to open up additional beds.”
Good Samaritan has adopted the Crisis Standards of Care tool in the event that conditions warrant implementation of such standards, according to Ylen.
“We are carefully planning for the worst but hoping for the best,” said Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center CEO Laura Hennum. “We are so grateful to see efforts by our community members to limit the spread of this virus. Every small action and choice adds up and could make a significant impact.”
OHA recently launched another resource for hospitals, the Oregon Interim Crisis Care Tool, to help hospitals with prioritizing treatment if they reach a point when critical care beds, specialized equipment such as ventilators, and other resources become scarce due to surging admissions.
“It’s important to remember that the fear is less that Omicron itself will kill large numbers of Oregonians. Instead, it is that the expected spread of the virus will cause more people to get sick,” said Senator Sara Gelser Blouin. “Omicron is so contagious that even though serious complications requiring hospitalization impact a small percentage of those infected, that translates to an actual number of people that will fill staffed hospital beds. That means that there will be reduced beds not just for COVID patients, but diminished ability to take care of people taken to the hospital for everything from heart attacks, strokes and psychiatric crises to car accidents and gunshot wounds.”
With the new interim triage tool announced by OHA, all patients who can benefit from treatment will only be offered care if health care resources are sufficient. If hospital staff, beds and the availability for treatment is insufficient based on the hospital’s inability to treat patients, all patients will be individually assessed according to the best available objective medical evidence.
Under this new tool, hospitals are being asked to abide by these two major standards that no one will be denied care based on stereotypes, assumptions about any individual’s quality of life, or judgment about an individual’s “worth” based on the presence or absence of disabilities. Additionally, care decisions are to be based on the likelihood of survival to hospital discharge.
According to Gesler Blouin, if the hospitalizations continue to trend upward, some people will not be able to receive treatment.
“Having a clear set of standards ensures that no one person has to carry the burden of these terrible decisions,” said Gelser Blouin. “It also allows for fair criteria to be used to ensure that everyone has an equal shot at accessing care, and that there are not a proportionately greater share of deaths among the elderly, disabled, low-income and BIPOC communities in the pandemic as a direct result of care rationing. That burden and tragedy must be shared by all of us.”
By Jennifer Williams
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