Hospitals are considering a universal ‘do not resuscitate’ order for all coronavirus patients, according to Washington Post.
They are allegedly engaged in a heavy debate as to how to weigh the “save at all costs” approach to resuscitating a dying patient against the real danger of exposing doctors and nurses to the contagion of coronavirus.
The supply of protective equipment is dwindling and staff is at risk. They believe it might justify the usual response to attempting to bring back patients who code.
Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago has been discussing a do-not-resuscitate policy for infected patients, regardless of the wishes of the patient or their family.
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George Washington University Hospital has had similar conversations.
Several large hospital systems — Atrium Health in the Carolinas, Geisinger in Pennsylvania and regional Kaiser Permanente networks — are looking at guidelines that would allow doctors to override the wishes of the coronavirus patient or family members on a case-by-case basis due to the risk to doctors and nurses, or a shortage of protective equipment, say ethicists and doctors involved in those conversations.
Procedures that resuscitate patients send virus-laced droplets around the room. It’s “anxiety-provoking,” the article states.
These include endoscopies, bronchoscopies and other procedures in which tubes or cameras are sent down the throat and are routine in ICUs to look for bleeds or examine the inside of the lungs.
Changing or eliminating those protocols is likely to decrease some patients’ chances of survival. But hospital administrators and doctors say the measures are necessary to save the most lives.
A health plan such as Kaiser that offers comprehensive care has a particular incentive to, if they can get away with it, withhold care from the sickest and/or oldest patients.in order to avoid the cost of treating them.
While no doctor should be allowed to practice if it has the chutzpah, arrogance, contempt for their patients, or disdain to normal standards of human conduct as to presume that it may without permission from a patient or the patients family designate a patient as a DNR (do not resuscitate). With a DNR “order” a patient is going to be receiving only palliative care until they “conveniently” (for the health care provider/insurer) die.
The Wuhan virus shouldn’t be allowed to enable Kaiser, or any other health care provider to unilaterally and without the consent of the patient or family withhold treatment from a patient.
The idea that Kaiser as on organization, or that the physician in chief at a particular Kaiser hospital, or that a Kaiser doctor would be so presumptuous, have such chutzpah, such arrogance, such misplaced sense of self importance, such contempt for their patients as to believe that it should be allowed to designate a patient as a DNR (do not resuscitate) patient without regard to the patients desire, without regard to the family instructions to the contrary is extremely troubling.
The Wuhan virus pandemic shouldn’t be used as the camels nose under the tent in terms of allowing a health plan such as Kaiser which offers comprehensive care to reduce its costs by not treating its sickest and/or oldest patients.
In practical terms a DNR “order” place on a patient chart means that henceforth the patient will receive only palliative care until they conveniently die..
Damn…the rumors are fast and furious….WaPo was purchased in 2015-16 by Bezo’s as a venue to go after the President.
Hospitals are considering a universal ‘do not resuscitate’ order for all coronavirus patients, according to Washington Post.
….. according to the Washington Post. I’m betting this is more fake news in an attempt to make this worse than it actually is.
The mean girls and the self loving TwitFaceGram crowd are probably rejoicing.
We’ll see if they can keep the lights on or how they handle it when the gadgets don’t work and there is no update for the daily ME.