Ethical Issues and the Allocation of Scarce Resources During a Public Health Emergency
Authors: Tia Powell, Guthrie Birkhead, Kelly Christ
Journal: Annals of Internal Medicine (2009)

Letters16 June 2009Ethical Issues and the Allocation of Scarce Resources During a Public Health EmergencyTia Powell, MD, Guthrie Birkhead, MD, MPH, and Kelly Christ, MHSTia Powell, MDFrom Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY 10467; New York State Department of Health and School of Public Health, University at Albany, Albany, NY 12237; and New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, New York, NY 10038.Search for more papers by this author, Guthrie Birkhead, MD, MPHFrom Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY 10467; New York State Department of Health and School of Public Health, University at Albany, Albany, NY 12237; and New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, New York, NY 10038.Search for more papers by this author, and Kelly Christ, MHSFrom Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY 10467; New York State Department of Health and School of Public Health, University at Albany, Albany, NY 12237; and New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, New York, NY 10038.Search for more papers by this authorAuthor, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-150-12-200906160-00019 SectionsAboutFull TextPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail TO THE EDITOR:White and colleagues (1) offer an interesting and useful critique of existing proposals for allocating critical care resources in public health disasters. We comment as drafters of the New York proposal cited by these authors, a group that included numerous ethicists, clinicians, and public health experts and developed an ethical framework to guide allocation principles. The differences in the specific recommendations about allocation are testimony to the difficulty of translating ethical principles into concrete actions in the clinical realm. For instance, we use exclusion criteria before applying a Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score, thus barring patients ...Reference1. White DB, Katz MH, Luce JM, Lo B. Who should receive life support during a public health emergency? Using ethical principles to improve allocation decisions. Ann Intern Med. 2009;150:132-8. [PMID: 19153413] LinkGoogle Scholar Author, Article, and Disclosure InformationAffiliations: From Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY 10467; New York State Department of Health and School of Public Health, University at Albany, Albany, NY 12237; and New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, New York, NY 10038.Note: The authors are members of the New York State Department of Health/New York State Task Force on Life & the Law Workgroup on the Allocation of Ventilators in an Influenza Pandemic.Disclosures: None disclosed. PreviousarticleNextarticle Advertisement FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsSee AlsoWho Should Receive Life Support During a Public Health Emergency? Using Ethical Principles to Improve Allocation Decisions Douglas B. White , Mitchell H. Katz , John M. Luce , and Bernard Lo Ethical Issues and the Allocation of Scarce Resources During a Public Health Emergency Michael D. Christian , Christian E. Sandrock , Asha Devereaux , James Geiling , CAPT Dennis E. Amundson , and Lewis Rubinson Ethical Issues and the Allocation of Scarce Resources During a Public Health Emergency Douglas B. White , Bernard Lo , and Mitch Katz Ethical Issues and the Allocation of Scarce Resources During a Public Health Emergency Allan R. Glass Ethical Issues and the Allocation of Scarce Resources During a Public Health Emergency John Hansen-Flaschen Ethical Issues and the Allocation of Scarce Resources During a Public Health Emergency Mark D. Siegel Metrics Cited ByAllocating scarce medical resources during armed conflict: ethical issues 16 June 2009Volume 150, Issue 12Page: 890KeywordsConflicts of interestCritical careElderlyFearHealth carePrevention, policy, and public healthPublic policyVentilators ePublished: 16 June 2009 Issue Published: 16 June 2009 CopyrightCopyright © 2009 by American College of Physicians. All Rights Reserved.PDF DownloadLoading ...