Hospitals Wrestle With Extent of Ebola Treatment

[tnbutterfly - Mary, BSN]

Wall Street Journal Hospitals Wrestle with Extent of Ebola Treatment

U.S. hospitals are grappling with whether to withhold aggressive treatments from Ebola patients to avoid further exposing doctors and nurses to the virus.

Some facilities have decided they will forgo cardiopulmonary resuscitation or may opt not to pursue invasive surgical procedures on deteriorating Ebola patients. Such procedures can expose health workers to bodily fluids that transmit the disease, and hospitals say in many cases have little chance of saving a patient.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls for limiting lab testing and medical procedures to the minimum that is medically necessary but says individual decisions should be made by attending physicians. The result is conflicting protocols nationwide.

Hospitals say no one is being denied lifesaving care and that decisions to forgo some procedures will only be made when the risk to staff is too great and treatment isn't medically justified. Ethics experts say such decisions are tricky and point out that aggressive treatment may help some U.S. Ebola patients who get early care.