Crisis Standards of Care

In 2009, the Institute of Medicine convened the Committee on Guidance for Establishing Standards of Care for Use in Disaster Situations to develop national guidance for state and local public health officials and health-sector agencies and institutions in establishing and implementing standards of care for disaster situations under conditions of scarce resources. It outlined a report that identified five elements that should underlie all crisis standards of care plans, and in this seven-volume set, reports on phase two of its study, which involved building on the first report, and developing templates to guide efforts for crisis standards of care planning and implementation. It also identified metrics to assess the development of care protocols and developed a set of tools for use at the state and local levels for developing care plans. The volumes summarize the elements of crisis standards of care identified in the 2009 report, recommendations from it, and its impact; a framework for a systems approach to the development and implementation of care plans; legal issues; the ethical, palliative care, and mental health issues that need to be addressed; and information for key stakeholder groups (in separate volumes: state and local governments, emergency medical services, hospitals and acute care facilities, and out-of-hospital and alternate care systems). Each volume details their roles and responsibilities, operational considerations associated with development and implementation of care plans, and templates that outline specific functions and tasks when allocating scarce resources in response to a disaster. The final two volumes contain a description of the committee's work to design a public engagement toolkit and the specific tools and appendices. Annotation c2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)