Chapter 7. Critical care triage. Recommendations and standard operating procedures for intensive care unit and hospital preparations for an influenza epidemic or mass disaster.
2010
PURPOSE:To provide recommendations and
standard operating proceduresfor intensive care unit (ICU) and hospital preparations for an influenza
pandemicor mass disaster with a specific focus on critical care
triage. METHODS:Based on a literature review and expert opinion, a Delphi process was used to define the essential topics including critical care
triage. RESULTS:Key recommendations include: (1) establish an Incident Management System with Emergency Executive Control Groups at facility, local, regional/state or national levels to exercise authority and direction over resources; (2) developing fair and equitable policies may require restricting ICU services to patients most likely to benefit; (3) usual treatments and standards of practice may be impossible to deliver; (4) ICU care and treatments may have to be withheld from patients likely to die even with ICU care and withdrawn after a trial in patients who do not improve or deteriorate; (5)
triagecriteria should be objective, ethical, transparent, applied equitably and be publically disclosed; (6) trigger
triageprotocols for
pandemicinfluenza only when critical care resources across a broad geographic area are or will be overwhelmed despite all reasonable efforts to extend resources or obtain additional resources; (7)
triageof patients for ICU should be based on those who are likely to benefit most or a '
first come,
first served' basis; (8) a
triageofficer should apply
inclusionand
exclusion criteriato determine patient qualification for ICU admission. CONCLUSIONS:Judicious planning and adoption of protocols for critical care
triageare necessary to optimize outcomes during a
pandemic.
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