As COVID-19 continues to dominate our day-to-day, a grim and revealing situation has developed in the northern region of the state of Idaho. On September 7, for the first time in state history, a protocol for Crisis Standards of Care (CSC) was declared and enacted.
COVID-19 has been riddled with unknown circumstances, and unfortunately, an unknown that has become all too real for some in Idaho is how we will be able to afford, initiate and provide equal and effective access to healthcare for our citizens. According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), Crisis Standards of Care is defined as “a substantial change in usual healthcare operations and the level of care it is possible to deliver, which is made necessary by a pervasive or catastrophic disaster.” The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare has considered the declaration of CSC as defined by the NIH and in association with outlining info in Idaho health code, making a thorough and clear decision to declare the need for this CSC enactment in the Northern region. The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare (IDHW) has released the following as their official statement:
“CSC is activated in the Panhandle Health District and the North Central Health District (Public Health Districts 1 and 2) because of a severe shortage of staffing and available beds in the northern area of the state caused by a massive increase in patients with COVID-19 who require hospitalization. Kootenai Health in Coeur d’Alene requested that CSC be activated. The CSC Activation Advisory Committee convened virtually on Sept. 6 and recommended that CSC be activated in the Panhandle and North Central Health Districts. Although DHW has activated CSC in North Idaho, hospitals (surrounding) will implement as needed and according to their own CSC policies.”
Federal data provided by IDHW outlines an increasing issue with COVID-19 infection rates and shows how the state is at its highest point of infection rate since the pandemic began.
“CSC is a last resort, says IDHW Director Dave Jeppesen, “… we have exhausted our resources to the point that our healthcare systems are unable to provide the treatment and care we expect.” Idaho Governor, Brad Little, issued a statement shortly after the declaration of CSC in Northern Idaho, one that follows his continued support for the COVID-19 vaccination efforts. Little states “We have reached an unprecedented and unwanted point in the history of our state. We have taken so many steps to avoid getting here, but yet again we need to ask more Idahoans to choose to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. More Idahoans need to choose to receive the vaccine so we can minimize the spread of the disease and reduce the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations, many of which involve younger Idahoans and are preventable with safe and effective vaccines.”
Jeppesen continues to emphasize how CSC is not just for COVID-19 patients, but it affects everyone, saying “What [CSC] means is if you go to the hospital, you should expect a longer wait time. You may not be seen in a traditional space; in fact, you may be seen in a classroom or a hallway, or you may be sent to a different hospital that has more capacity.” This statement was made just a little over one week after Kootenai Health converted their largest teaching classroom in the medical facility into a COVID-19 care unit. St. Alphonsus and St. Lukes health systems have issued a joint statement regarding their facility capacity, saying that “they are being pushed to the brink of crisis standards.”
More on this story to come as the CSC declaration develops. For information on COVID-19 vaccination opportunities, COVID-19 testing/monitoring protocol, or to observe the health crisis in Northern Idaho more closely and see how this can affect you, you can visit the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare site at [https://healthandwelfare.idaho.gov/].
