When pandemic biology meets market forces – managing excessive demand for care during a national health emergency

•The COVID-19 pandemic provided a natural experiment of global ability to match supply of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) resources to unprecedented need.•In the United States (US), a fragmented healthcare infrastructure struggled to meet local demands despite the country having many more ICU beds per cap...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of critical care 2022-02, Vol.67, p.193-194
Main Authors: Nurok, Michael, Gusmano, Michael K., Fins, Joseph J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Allocation
Biology
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Crises standards of care
Health care policy
Hospitals
Humans
Intensive care
Pandemic
Pandemics
Patients
Personal protective equipment
Rationing
Regions
Triage
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Summary:•The COVID-19 pandemic provided a natural experiment of global ability to match supply of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) resources to unprecedented need.•In the United States (US), a fragmented healthcare infrastructure struggled to meet local demands despite the country having many more ICU beds per capita than most of Europe.•Economically vulnerable populations likely suffered adverse outcomes as a result.•The more centrally planned French healthcare system was able to transfer patients between regions in an attempt to match ICU bed capacity to demand.•These lessons are important to future national health emergencies because, without being able to match supply to demand, ICU care must be rationed and existing approaches to allocation of ICU resources do not have the ability to determine accurately who will receive benefit.
ISSN:0883-9441
1557-8615
DOI:10.1016/j.jcrc.2021.09.018