[Vision2020] Idaho rations health care statewide as COVID surge drags on

[Saundra Lund]

Crisis Standards of Care have now been activated for the entire state:

Idaho rations health care statewide as COVID surge drags on

 * Associated Press
 
 * Sep 16, 2021 Updated 1 hr ago

BOISE — Idaho public health leaders on Thursday expanded health care rationing statewide amid a massive increase in the number of coronavirus patients requiring hospitalization. 

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare made the announcement after St. Luke's Health System, Idaho's largest hospital network, on Wednesday asked state health leaders to allow "crisis standards of care" because the increase in COVID-19 patients has exhausted the state's medical resources.

Idaho is one of the least vaccinated U.S. states, with only about 40 percent of its residents fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Only Wyoming and West Virginia have lower vaccination rates. 

Crisis care standards mean that scarce resources like ICU beds will be allotted to the patients most likely to survive. Other patients will be treated with less effective methods or, in dire cases, given pain relief and other palliative care.

Thursday's move came a week after Idaho officials started allowing health care rationing at hospitals in northern parts of the state.

"The situation is dire – we don't have enough resources to adequately treat the patients in our hospitals, whether you are there for COVID-19 or a heart attack or because of a car accident," Idaho Department of Welfare Director Dave Jeppesen said in statement.

He urged people to get vaccinated and wear masks indoors and in crowded outdoor settings.

"Our hospitals and healthcare systems need our help. The best way to end crisis standards of care is for more people to get vaccinated. It dramatically reduces your chances of having to go to the hospital if you do get sick from COVID-19," Jeppesen said.

One in every 201 Idaho residents tested positive for COVID-19 over the past week, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. The mostly rural state ranks 12th in the U.S. for newly confirmed cases per capita. More than 1,300 new coronavirus cases were reported to the state on Wednesday, according to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.

Hospitalizations have skyrocketed. On Sept. 13, the most recent data available from the state showed that 678 people were hospitalized statewide with coronavirus.

Meanwhile, the number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care unit beds has stayed mostly flat for the last two weeks at 70 people each day — suggesting the state may have reached the limit of its ability to treat ICU patients.

Though all of the state's hospitals can now ration health care resources as needed, some might not need to take that step. Each hospital will decide how to implement the crisis standards of care in its own facility, public health officials said.

Kootenai Health in the city of Coeur d'Alene was the first hospital in the state to officially enter crisis standards of care last week.

At the time, chief of staff Dr. Robert Scoggins said some patients were being treated in a conference center that had been converted into a field hospital. Others received treatment in hallways or in converted emergency room lobbies. Urgent and elective surgeries are on hold across much of the state.

On Wednesday, nearly 92% of all of the COVID-19 patients in St. Luke's hospitals were unvaccinated. Sixty one of the hospital's 78 intensive care unit patients had COVID-19.

Public health officials have warned Idaho residents for weeks to take extra care to ensure they don't end up in hospitals. Last week, Jeppesen said residents should take their medications as prescribed, wear seatbelts and reconsider participating in any activities like cycling that could lead to injuries.

dnews.com/idaho-rations-health-care-statewide-as-covid-surge-drags-on/article_2cf708de-1704-11ec-81b0-93e8834f13e7.html

On Thu, Sep 16, 2021, at 5:01 AM, Tom Hansen wrote:
> *_MASK-UP, MOSCOW_ ! ! !*
> 
> Courtesy of today”s *Moscow-Pullman Daily News* . . .
> 
> ————————————————-
> 
> Officials: Idaho headed toward rationing of medical care
> 
> Many hospitals near crisis standards because of virus surge
> 
> 
> BOISE — Idaho’s public health officials say crisis standards of care are imminent for the state’s most populated region as hospitals continue to be overrun with unvaccinated coronavirus patients.
> 
> The southwestern and southern Idaho regions that include Boise and Twin Falls may get official authorization to begin rationing health care — a step intended to ensure the patients most likely to survive are given access to scarce resources like intensive care unit beds — any day now, Idaho Department of Health and Welfare Director Dave Jeppesen said Tuesday.
>  
> “We continue to set new records each week,” said Jeppesen about coronavirus hospitalizations. “We do not see a peak in sight.”
>  
> Hospitals in the northern half of the state were given permission to begin rationing care last week, when Kootenai Health in Coeur d’Alene was forced to begin treating some patients in a field hospital set up in a conference center instead of regular hospital rooms.
>  
> “Nearly all the metrics we track are trending in the wrong direction,” when it comes to coronavirus, deputy state epidemiologist Dr. Kathryn Turner said.
>  
> On Sept. 11, the state had more than 600 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, far beyond last winter’s peak when 466 people were hospitalized. Coronavirus patients in intensive care units and on ventilators are also setting record highs in the state. The vast majority of them — more than 91 percent — are not vaccinated against coronavirus.
>  
> The highly contagious delta variant is sickening and sometimes killing more younger patients than the original variant, Turner said. In all of 2020, more than half of the COVID-19 deaths were among Idaho residents who were at least 80 years old, according to the department’s numbers. This year, well over half of the deaths are in people aged 50 to 79, and just more than 7 percent of the deaths were among even younger Idaho residents.
>  
> But even as the state continues to see new records in the number of people hospitalized or on ventilators with COVID-19, weekly vaccination rates are dropping. About 40,000 vaccine doses were administered during the week of Sept. 5, according to numbers from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, compared to 57,000 and 67,000 doses each of the two prior weeks.
>  
> Still, many of Idaho’s most powerful officials have been reluctant to support mask mandates or employment-based vaccine requirements. Idaho Gov. Brad Little has never issued a statewide mask mandate. Last week he announced that he was working with Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden to see if they could use the court system to stop President Joe Biden from requiring that large employers mandate COVID-19 vaccines or implement routine COVID-19 testing.
>  
> Meanwhile, the governor — like state health officials — continues to urge residents to get vaccinated against coronavirus.
>  
> Such urging has been largely ineffective so far. Idaho remains one of the least-vaccinated states in the nation, with just 50 percent of its residents fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
> 
> ————————————————-
> 
> Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .
> 
> "Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)
> http://www.MoscowCares.net
> 
> Tom Hansen
> Moscow, Idaho
> 
> “A stranger is just a friend you haven’t met.”
> - Roy E. Stolworthy
> 
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