Even as the coronavirus outbreak continues, some hospitals and doctors are already preparing for the possibility of facing lawsuits over the deaths that have happened on their watch, according to the New York Post.
Lawyers are already advising such facilities and medical personnel on how to navigate such potential lawsuits, which may arise from split-second decisions on which patients to save when multiple patients are in critical condition. One such lawyer, Nick Oberheiden, told Bloomberg that he recommended having “clear written policies that do not discriminate or single out certain patients based on age, gender, race, or any of those unlawful, suspect criteria.”
As shortages of supplies in some areas lead to immediate life-or-death decisions that may ultimately see some patients saved while others die, Oberheiden recommends that doctors and hospitals maintain documents of every decision that is made when it comes to select treatment, as well as the distribution of equipment and medicine to certain patients, so that their rationale can always be explained after the fact.