Florida mull how to ration ventilators

Wonder what sort of plan is in placet o increase the number of Pedi vents??

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) contracted with the American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC) to perform a comprehensive inventory of mechanical ventilators in every hospital in the country. A survey is being taken to gain an accurate account of the number of ventilators that would be available in the event of a nationwide pandemic.

The Office of Preparedness and Response requested this inventory information “as the nation braces for the nH1N1 virus that may affect record numbers of Americans,” according to an announcement from AARC. The announcement goes on to explain, “Initial experience shows that many individuals are placed on ventilators as a result of this flu.”

All information gained from the survey will be kept in confidence and will not be available through the Freedom of Information Act. The AARC clarifies that no relocation of ventilators will be performed as a result of this survey; the information is sought so that the government can acquire or assist in augmenting current ventilator capacity.

I think oncologists must become more proactive regarding referrals to counseling/hospice for their "end of life" patients. Once they're hospitalized with end stage disease, it's time for "acceptance", yet patients, families, and friends haven't dealt with the earlier phases on "that road". Hospice has the best setup for dealing with emotional responses, that I've seen. It's important to include counseling when describing hospice services to patients and/or families. An inservice program by hospice is very valuable for any medical-surtgical unit or ICU.

I've occasionally heard health care professionals say they "don't believe in hospice", which must be their own personal attitude, but not the approach to take for patients who need to try out different modalities of care. When hospice only sees patients the last few days of their lives, their priority has to be pain relief, yet if they started care earlier there are many more services to offer - such as getting the DNR (saves hospital nurses doing that) and living wills, etc.

It doesn't take Health Care reform to make reforms in health care....who will want to sit on the panels to decide which patients get the vents? And what happens in an acute crisis - say, auto accident, or burns?
Yes, I do not believe in futile care - and every time there is a 'bad' diagnosis there should be a counselling 'intervention' with the pt and family. But who gets the ultimate say-so?
WOW!

"In this particular situation, hospice was consulted and that's when the family threatened a lawsuit because we were giving up on his wife."

Families threatening a lawsuit because they were given information regarding the care options for their loved one...hhhmmm...don't think that is ever going to make it to court.

The hospital didn't care if it might make it to court or not. We were given a gag order to not speak of code status to patient or family by administration, and pt remained full code, vented with multiple gtt's while the cancer took over her body, and eventually killed her.

in that case, the hospital was part of the problem and can eat the bill!

In this particular situation, hospice was consulted and that's when the family threatened a lawsuit because we were giving up on his wife.

What a surprise! The patient died...OH MY, how could this have been prevented?

Insanity; repeating the same things expecting different outcomes...