Caring for Frail Older Adults During COVID 19: integrating public health ethics into clinical practice
Abstract During the COVID 19 pandemic, principles from both clinical and public health ethics cue clinicians and health care administrators to plan alternatives for frail older adults who prefer to avoid critical care, and for when critical care is not available due to crisis triaging. This paper will explore the COVID 19 Ethical Decision Making Framework, published in British Columbia, Canada, to familiarize clinicians and policy makers with how ethical principles can guide systems change, in the service of frail older adults. In British Columbia, the health care system has launched resources to support clinicians in proactive advance care planning discussions, and is providing enhanced supportive and palliative care options to residents of long term care facilities. If the pandemic truly overwhelms the healthcare system, frailty, but not age alone, provides a fair and evidence based means of triaging patients for critical care and could be included into ventilator allocation frameworks. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Journal of the American Geriatrics Society