DPHHS issues emergency rule to ease capacity strain on Montana hospitals

[struggle4progress]

By: MTN News
Posted at 6:31 PM, Sep 17, 2021 and last updated 9:41 AM, Sep 18, 2021

... Gianforte said in a news release: “As our hospitals and health care workers continue to work around-the-clock to deliver life-saving care to Montanans, this new tool will help reduce the burdens our providers face. We will continue to work with hospitals and providers to support their ongoing response.”

The news release states that hospital systems, including critical access hospitals that serve rural populations in Montana, are experiencing a surge of demand for medical services by Montanans infected with the COVID virus, in particular the highly contagious Delta variant which is now the predominant strain in Montana. In addition to facing the demand for medical services, hospitals are experiencing staff shortages and need to reduce administrative burden on staff in the management of available beds and services.

Within the last 72 hours, St. Peter’s Health announced they are in “crisis care” as its hospital critical care unit has reached full capacity; Bozeman Health said it is "dangerously close" to implementing surge plans due to COVID cases; and Billings Clinic is on the verge of implementing crisis care standards ...

https://www.krtv.com/news/coronavirus/dphhs-issues-emergency-rule-to-ease-strain-on-hospital-capacity-across-montana

[struggle4progress]

1. Impossible choices inside Alaska's inundated hospitals

By Zaz Hollander
Updated: 1 hour ago
Published: 15 hours ago

... Young pregnant women so sick with the virus they need a ventilator to breathe. People experiencing chest pain, a major heart attack symptom, waiting for hours in the ER. Gravely ill patients dying before they get care — or because someone else with better survival odds was prioritized for treatment.

Alaska is experiencing one of the sharpest surges of COVID-19 in the United States, with more people hospitalized with COVID-19 than at any other time during the pandemic and vaccination rates in the nation’s bottom third ...

One was in their 30s, the other older. The older patient was sicker. Both needed dialysis to clear the fluid that was clogging their lungs. That procedure removes waste products and excess fluid from the blood when infections, including COVID-19, lead to kidney failure.

There was only enough staff for one machine ...

https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2021/09/17/impossible-choices-inside-alaskas-inundated-hospitals/

[irisblue]

2. Alaska, Idaho and Montana are now using Crisis Care Standards, AKA Medical Triage

I am not sure if there are other states.

The GOP finally got their Death Panels

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK32748/
snip--..."Guidance for Establishing Standards of Care for Use in Disaster Situations to develop guidance that state and local public health officials can use to establish and implement standards of care that should apply in disaster situations—both naturally occurring and manmade—under scarce resource conditions."

[captain queeg]

3. Soon the overflow to nearby states will lead to them making some tough decisions.