Coronavirus: Tiered staffing recommended to bolster critical care

The Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) is recommending a tiered staffing model for hospitals opening new ICUs in response to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

To avoid rationing of critical care services, which has been reported in China and Italy, U.S. hospitals are scrambling to find ventilators and critical care staff to expand ICU beds for treatment of high-acuity COVID-19 patients. Severe hypoxic respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation is the most common reason that COVID-19 patients are being admitted to ICUs globally, according to a recent SCCM report.

“As large numbers of critically ill patients are admitted to ICU, step-down, and other expansion beds, it must be determined who will care for them. Having an adequate supply of beds and equipment is not enough. Based on AHA 2015 data, there are 28,808 privileged and 19,996 full-time equivalent intensivists in the United States; however, 48% of acute care hospitals have no intensivists,” the SCCM report says.

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