DECISION TIME

COVID-Flooded Utah Hospitals Are Close to Rationing Care

It’s coming down to this: deciding who gets a bed in the ICU and who is out of luck.

Utah hospitals are so overwhelmed by the rise in coronavirus cases that they have told Gov. Gary Herbert that they will soon have to ration care and decide who can have an ICU bed. The issue is the number of patients is skyrocketing while staffing is stretched thin. “We’re down 20% to 30%. Hundreds and hundreds of nurses are not able to work as they were [before] because of their own disease or infection in the family, or they’re moms and dads with school issues,” Greg Bell, president of the Utah Hospital Association, told The Salt Lake Tribune. “Some are worn out, some are on leave because they’ve been doing this for seven months.” Under criteria submitted to the state for approval, ICU patients who are getting worse would be booted out to make room for others who might be saved, and younger patients will get priority over older people, if all else is equal.