Coronavirus Disease 2019 Triage Teams: Death by Numbers.

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Joel Zivot, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2020-08
• Publisher: Wolters Kluwer
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2020 by the Society of Critical Care Medicine and Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/CCM.0000000000004435
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Critical Care Medicine
• Volume: 48
• Issue: 8
• Start Page: 1241
• End Page: 1242
• Grant/Funding Information: None declared
• Keywords: Triage; Pandemics; Pneumonia, Viral; Adult; Coronavirus; Intensive Care Units; Coronavirus Infections; Betacoronavirus; Humans; COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Epidemiology; Health Sciences, Health Care Management; Health Sciences, Public Health; Health Sciences, Medicine and Surgery

Abstract

As coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues its global spread, we are faced with the very real problem of too many patients and not enough ventilators. In this issue of Critical Care Medicine, Sprung et al (1) consider the worst of these fears and attempt to provide guidance on critical care resource utilization. COVID-19 is a novel disease with an uncertain natural history (2). As a consequence of a lack of testing, the true case fatality rate cannot be known. In a worst-case scenario, mathematical modeling predicts illness and death of millions of people worldwide. Such an influx of patients over a relatively short period of time would behave like a mass casualty event and overwhelm healthcare and ICU resources. Sprung et al (1) describe the development of a triage model to manage expected ICU excess patient capacity under these circumstances. Their model draws from a review of scientific literature on the subject of epidemic ICU triage found within PubMed and Medline, relevant statements from other professional medical societies, and the opinions of the article’s authors.