Resource allocation in intensive care

Abstract

Intensive care medicine has higher per-patient costs, staffing ratios and intervention rates than many other healthcare settings. Besides the economic impact, treatment is burdensome; the decision to admit patients to the intensive care unit must be carefully balanced against the prospect of meaningful recovery. With advances in medicine and surgery, a higher proportion of increasingly comorbid patients with advanced age are presenting to intensive care. Even in developed countries, resources remain limited, and clinicians must carefully consider to whom these resources are allocated in order to maximize benefit. Resource scarcity during the recent coronavirus disease pandemic presented further challenges. Classical ethical principles can be interwoven with newer models of ethical decision-making to help the intensive care team maximize the utility of available resources.