Barriers to Integrating Crisis Standards of Care Principles into International Disaster Response Plans: Workshop Summary

摘要

When a nation or region prepares for public health emergencies such as a pandemic influenza, a large-scale earthquake, or any major disaster scenario in which the health system may be destroyed or stressed to its limits, it is important to describe how standards of care would change due to shortages of critical resources. Such crisis standards of care are the level of health and medical care capable of being delivered during a catastrophic event (whether naturally occurring or manmade). To ensure that fair and equitable care is provided to patients in a catastrophic event, nations and regions need a robust system to guide the public, health care professionals and institutions, and governmental entities at all levels. Crisis standards of care has been the focus of several recent and ongoing Institute of Medicine (IOM) activities, including a series of workshops (IOM, 2010) and a letter report, Guidance for Establishing Crisis Standards of Care for Use in Disaster Situations (IOM, 2009).