Saving the most lives-A comparison of European triage guidelines in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 8704792 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1467-8519 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 02699702 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Bioethics Subsets: MEDLINE

Publication: Oxford : Wiley-Blackwell
Original Publication: Oxford ; New York : Basil Blackwell, c1987-

Health Care Rationing*; COVID-19/*therapy ; Standard of Care/*ethics ; Triage/*ethics; Age Factors ; COVID-19/epidemiology ; Europe/epidemiology ; Health Personnel/ethics ; Health Personnel/psychology ; Health Priorities ; Hospitalization ; Human Rights ; Humans ; Intensive Care Units/ethics ; Practice Guidelines as Topic ; SARS-CoV-2/physiology ; Treatment Outcome ; Ventilators, Mechanical/supply & distribution ; Withholding Treatment/ethics

In March 2020, the rapid increase in severe COVID-19 cases overwhelmed the healthcare systems in several European countries. The capacities for artificial ventilation in intensive care units were too scarce to care for patients with acute respiratory disorder connected to the disease. Several professional associations published COVID-19 triage recommendations in an extremely short time: in 21 days between March 6 and March 27. In this article, we compare recommendations from five European countries, which combine medical and ethical reflections on this situation in some detail. Our aim is to provide a detailed overview on the ethical elements of the recommendations, the differences between them and their coherence. In more general terms we want to identify shortcomings in regard to a common European response to the current situation.
(© 2020 The Authors. Bioethics published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Keywords: COVID-19; European regulation; intensive care; resource allocation; triage

Date Created: 20201216 Date Completed: 20210204 Latest Revision: 20210204

20250114

10.1111/bioe.12836

33325536