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LA Paramedics Told Not To Transport Some Patients With Low Chance Of Survival:
The Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Services Agency issued a directive Monday that ambulance crews should only administer bottled oxygen to patients whose oxygen saturation levels fall below 90%.
In a separate memo from the county's EMS Agency, paramedic crews have been told not to transfer patients who experience cardiac arrest unless spontaneous circulation can be restored on the scene.
Both measures announced Monday, which were issued by the agency's medical director, Dr. Marianne Gausche-Hill, were taken in an attempt to get ahead of an expected surge to come following the winter holidays.
Many hospitals in the region "have reached a point of crisis and are having to make very tough decisions about patient care," Dr. Christina Ghaly, the LA County director of health services said at a briefing Monday.
[...] "We do not believe that we are yet seeing the cases that stemmed from the Christmas holiday," Ghaly added. "This, sadly, and the cases from the recent New Year's holiday, is still before us, and hospitals across the region are doing everything they can to prepare."
Los Angeles County hospitals are so inundated, officials said they're just trying to provide the best care they can for the people who need it.
The memo sent out on December 28 by the medical director of L.A. County's Emergency Medical Services agency, Dr. Marianne Gausche-Hill, addressed how first responders should treat stroke and heart attack patients, saying a patient should be treated at the scene first and have a pulse during resuscitation before transporting them to the hospital.
[...] The medical director of L.A. County's Emergency Services Agency, Dr. Marianne Gausche-Hill, assured CBS2 that officials continue to do all they can to save patients' lives at the scene and the hospital, as they always have.
"We are not abandoning resuscitation," Gausche-Hill said. "We are absolutely doing best practice resuscitation and that is do it in the field, do it right away... What we're asking is that — which is slightly different than before — is that we are emphasizing the fact that transporting these patients arrested leads to very poor outcomes.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday January 06 2021, @05:55PM (8 children)
Government oversight is our responsibility. It's up to us to employ competent people and to discharge the incompetent with the opportunity we are granted every two years. If we can't be bothered, the bullshit will continue.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Thursday January 07 2021, @02:07AM (7 children)
Yes, every nation gets the government it deserves.
But I don't see how that has anything to do with this discussion. You still haven't addressed my point about the lack of qualified staff. No, you can't make doctors in 3 months. I don't care how competent a government is; it's not possible to create highly trained people overnight, no matter how much money you have.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday January 07 2021, @02:40AM (6 children)
We are supposed to seek out and appoint people to make those arrangements, make the government serve, use that money for massive training efforts and other infrastructure, so what if you don't have them immediately, they are there for the future. Chronic shortages of anything is a crime. It should not happen in a prosperous society. So now, let's correct the problem, by redirecting all that fed money to where it is needed. Giving it to Wall Street only buys hookers and coke.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Thursday January 07 2021, @06:23AM (5 children)
Again, I really don't care how much money you throw at it, you simply cannot train people to be doctors and nurses in a few months. It takes years. It's just like making a baby: even if you take all the money of Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and Jeff Bezos combined, it will still take 9 months, no matter what. Sure, you could train some people to be nurses' aides, but that's only going to go so far: you have to have real doctors and nurses, and they can only service so many patients at a time, even with some extra less-trained help.
And finally, it's not the government's job to train doctors. We have a system of mostly privately-owned healthcare companies, and various universities and medical schools that have limited enrollment, so we can only make so many new doctors and nurses at a time, and it just isn't something the federal government has any control over. This isn't Cuba, nor is it the UK, or even Canada. What you're advocating is for this country to become more like one of those countries, and Americans do not want that (even if it would work much better, since we have by far the highest cost for care in the world (including as a percentage of GDP), but not great care for most of the population). Even in the middle of a terrible pandemic, Americans have clearly spoken at the voting booth that they do not want "socialism" (while Biden won the Presidential election, the Democrats (who aren't even socialist except for a few) **lost** seats in the House). There's just not anywhere near enough political will in this country to make the kind of changes you're advocating.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday January 07 2021, @07:04AM (4 children)
Exactly, and that is why we have shortages and rationing. A mere observation. There is no mystery.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Thursday January 07 2021, @04:20PM (3 children)
We're getting the government that we voted for, and that we deserve.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday January 07 2021, @05:26PM (2 children)
That's all I ever said. But in answer to your original question, if you're looking for the money, you know where it is, and they are printing it like there's an infinite supply. So, people just have to vote on where it goes. And they just voted to send more trillions to Wall Street instead of disaster relief. The money issue is as plain as day, plenty there, just being misspent on hookers and coke.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Thursday January 07 2021, @07:41PM (1 child)
Yes, but that's the way this country rolls. We don't want "socialism", so instead of having a well-managed healthcare system like those in UK or Germany (which can be more centralized like the UK's, or more public/private partnership like Germany), where we really could build more hospitals and push more education/training programs to increase the number of healthcare professionals (which would still take a lot of time, but at least it'd prepare us for the next pandemic), we rely on "The Holy Invisible Hand" to run things and then throw money at Wall Street when things aren't working.
I just don't see any way of fixing this when half our country is violently (and I mean that word literally, based on what we saw yesterday) opposed to anything that could be called "socialism", but is perfectly happy to hand out money to Wall Street.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday January 07 2021, @08:03PM
And that is the problem, not the money, we just create barriers to access.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..