State officials develop guidelines to ration existing ventilators as demand increases

BOSTON — The number of people in Massachusetts who have died from COVID-19 rose to 356 Tuesday, an increase of 96 new deaths - more than three times the 29 deaths reported Monday.

The number of residents who have tested positive topped 15,200, according to the Department of Public Health.

More than 1,400 have been hospitalized since the outbreak’s start. More than 81,300 have been tested.

As cases in the state continue to rise, so does the need for ventilators. While the state has been working to get more to meet the demand, so is everyone else, which means alternative measures need to be considered.

With that in mind, Massachusetts health officials released a 34-page report on Tuesday giving guidance to hospitals on how to decide who to give ventilators to.

Some hospitals in the area are in the process of looking this over to decide if this is the route they will go or if they will decide on their own plan of attack.

The guidance in the report asks hospitals to prioritize medical personnel and people who are younger and healthier for equipment like ventilators and other life-saving equipment. According to the state, that allows providers to maximize the number of life years saved, mainly by ensuring that people who can keep helping save others are healthy enough to do so.

Race, gender, ethnicity, disability, socioeconomic immigration or incarceration status are among the qualifiers that should have no bearing on the determination.

However, under the system, a hospitals triage team would score patients based on their prognosis for survival, including any underlying health conditions in addition to COVID-19 that could limit their life expectancy. Pregnant women and health care workers needed to care for other coronavirus-infected patients have heightened priority

Even though nothing in this is mandatory, it does provide guidance for this pandemic and doctors say no matter what this is extremely challenging.

Boston 25 News spoke with a couple of doctors who say they would also agree with the report. They say its a sad reality, but it’s important to prioritize younger people for two reasons: they have a full life to live and they’re also more likely to survive.

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