(Snippets from the frontline)
COVID-19/BLM: The purge surge
We’ve seen heart-wrenching decisions rationing healthcare in Italy and New York. Now with the recent surge, the lives of seniors might be in jeopardy for lack of hospital beds or equipment.
In many states, odds are against you if you are an older adult needing hospitalization:
– Gray hair allows a triage doctor to withhold medical care at their discretion should they feel your life expectancy might not be longer than 5 years. It’s called Crisis Standards of Care and that physician is absolved of liability. Look it up.
– If you are unable to make decisions but do not provide paperwork with a designee, an HMO or hospital can legally usurp decision-making away from your loved ones. Look up Default Surrogate Consent Statues for your state.
– Public confusion over the terms palliative, hospice, and comfort care easily launch patients out of acute care into nursing homes. Patients are surreptitiously placed on hospice saving the hospital and HMO money. See writings on Doctor’s Diary (Feb/Mar 2019).
– Obviously, premature transferring from a hospital to a nursing home puts you back into harms way.
Rationing is not rational. It is a purge surge, and an assault on seniors.
Gene Uzawa Dorio, M.D.
Wow! I had no idea!