A relational analysis of pandemic critical care triage protocols

In a severe influenza pandemic, a surge of illness in a community would be felt especially in hospital critical care units, where intensive resources are devoted to sustaining the lives of the most ill. The lead-up to the anticipated second wave of H1N1 influenza in the fall of 2009 and the memory of the SARS outbreak earlier in the decade have caused health care organizations in North America to develop critical care triage protocols for dealing with a deadly pandemic. These protocols anticipate the nightmare scenario in which lifesaving resources deployed by critical care units (nurses, physicians, ventilator technologies, drugs) are inadequate to save the lives of all who need such resources. In this scenario ..