| I posted this yesterday, then, interestingly, the report was mentioned at Med Exec last night because someone had read it in the media.
The CEO of our hospital and a doc who is on the board of the county medical society said that the Dept of Homeland Security had sponsored seminars and planning sessions involving state and local public health officials, hospitals and medical societies to come up with disaster plans. The largest private insurer had also run some disaster scenarios trying to plan how to keep their finance and computer systems up and running during a pandemic, and found the reults so sobering that they shared them with the hospitals around the state.
Truth is, if these doomsday scenarios came to pass, we would be way beyond any previous plans, with totally overwhelmed resources - the care offered would be little different from the level of care offered in 1918. even if the flu came in waves, which is typical for an epidemic, hospitals run in a "just in time" delivery mode, and they don't think the drugs can be delivered or food or supplies, and much of the staff would be sick or home caring for sick families.
I think the medical community is hoping for affirmation from society at large for the ethical basis of making these tough choices. I could see it happen to us after a hurricane - the hospital started running low on food after a storm a few years ago, and that was with very little damage, just too many squatters. |