The answers to these issues in macroallocation will shape the medical environment in the future just as they shape it now. Microallocation decisions are those that decide which patient receives a scarce resource. This should not be an arbitrary decision, but one made through some standard procedure. A preliminary pool of candidates may be determined by standards such as citizenship, payor class, and prospect of success. Allocation based on the value of the recipient to society, age, number of dependents, are less defensible because they do not incorporate equality, fair opportunity, and equal access as well as random allocation.
Triage is another example of microallocation, but based on injury severity.
Patients are rapidly assessed and divided into those who will die without immediate help, those whose therapy can be delayed without immediate danger, those with minor injury, and those in whom no therapy will be efficacious. However, if those with minor injury are physicians and treating them early on would serve the societal good by allowing them to help other injured, they might justly be given treatment priority they would not otherwise get.