Medically-necessary, time-sensitive procedures: a scoring system to ethically and efficiently manage resource scarcity and provider risk during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prachand VN, Milner R, Angelos P, et al. Medically-necessary, time-sensitive procedures: a scoring system to ethically and efficiently manage resource scarcity and provider risk during the COVID-19 pandemic. J Am Coll Surg. 2020;231(2):281-288. doi:10.1016/j.jamcollsurg.2020.04.011.
Physicians may be faced with difficult decisions regarding potential limits to patient access to care during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to preserve resources to meet the medical needs of patients diagnosed with COVID-19. This article describes a scoring system incorporating resource limitations and COVID-19 transmission risk to facilitate decision-making and triage for medically-necessary, time-sensitive procedures while balancing patient risk and public health concerns.