Crisis in health care means choosing patients

Hospitals are expected to deliver minimum standards of care to be accredited and eligible to bill Medicare. These standards of care are based on scientific evidence that is important for delivering safe and high-quality care.

Idaho and Alaska recently activated Crisis Standards of Care for their hospitals to follow. These are guidelines for hospitals to follow when they cannot deliver services and provide minimum standards of care. This means they must ration care, which is a rare occurrence in our country. When people in our country need emergency services and other care in our hospitals, the...