Colorado Coronavirus Updates: What You Need To Know This Weekend
State officials voted to update Colorado's crisis standards of care guideline to take into consideration the novel coronavirus outbreak.
Crisis standards of care are recommendations for how health care professionals should allocate scarce resources, such as ventilators and intensive care unit beds, in the extreme case when patients outnumber the resources.
“The state has been working hard to avoid having to use Denver News these standards,” said Dr. Eric France, chief medical officer at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment in a statement. “We’re working with the hospitals to increase the number of ICU beds and ventilators to try and meet the anticipated demand. We need everyone’s help to slow the spread of the virus by following public health orders, to reduce the likelihood of putting these standards into practice.”
The Governor’s Expert Emergency Epidemic Response Committee voted to send along its recommendations to Gov. Jared Polis, who could decide to activate the new standards at any time.
Details about the updated crisis standards of care include who should serve on a triage team, and that the teams such as not base decision on race, ability to pay, sexual orientation, religion and several other factors. The standards also address the use of personal protective equipment.
Standards say that every institution should have a triage team that should use a tiered approach for allocation/re-allocation of scarce resources like Press Release Distribution Services In Denver ventilators. In the event of a tie within a tier, the triage team should move to the next tier of considerations.
The state health department recommends that everyone has an advanced directive, or "living will," that is shared with their loved ones.
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