{"id":4214,"date":"2008-03-03T19:38:18","date_gmt":"2008-03-04T02:58:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2008\/03\/03\/planning-health-care-in-a-disaster\/"},"modified":"2008-03-03T19:38:18","modified_gmt":"2008-03-04T02:58:06","slug":"planning-health-care-in-a-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=4214","title":{"rendered":"Planning health care in a disaster"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the Sacramento Bee<\/span><\/a>:<\/p>\n

Older, sicker patients could be allowed to die in order to save the lives of patients more likely to survive a massive disaster, bioterror attack or influenza pandemic in California.<\/p>\n

It’s not how nurses and doctors are accustomed to doing things, nor how Californians expect to be treated. But it is part of a sweeping statewide plan being praised for its breadth, even as it rankles providers who will have to carry it out.<\/p>\n

The new “surge capacity guidelines” released by the state Department of Public Health, depict a post-disaster health care environment that looks and feels nothing like the system most Californians depend on.<\/p>\n

It provides for scenarios in which patients could be herded into school gymnasiums for life-saving care or animal doctors could stitch up the human wounded and set their broken bones.<\/p>\n

The 1,900-page document lays the practical \u2013 and ethical \u2013 groundwork for local and county health departments, hospitals, emergency responders and any able-bodied health care worker likely to be called upon in a catastrophe.<\/p>\n

Striking in its specificity and its frank focus on the need to suspend or flex established laws and to ration health care, the plan is being hailed as a model for the rest of the nation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You really need to read the whole thing<\/a> to get a sense of how the plan would simultaneously limit patient protections and provide freer access to care.<\/p>\n

Cross-posted at The Gimp Parade<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the Sacramento Bee: Older, sicker patients could be allowed to die in order to save the lives of patients more likely to survive a massive disaster, bioterror attack or influenza pandemic in California. It’s not how nurses and doctors … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-disabled-rights-issues","category-in-the-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4214\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}