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As fears of a pandemic flu and mass casualty events remain on the radar for respiratory therapists, the health care communities are placing a greater emphasis on planning for catastrophic events.
To that end, the AARC has issued guidance and is committed to helping its members plan and execute appropriate responses as needed. This page collects some of the resources that may be helpful.
Pocket Card
Download the Respiratory Care Pocket Reference.
Disaster Response Community
Our Disaster Response community is an active community of AARC members discussing issues relating to disaster preparedness. Join the Disaster Response Community.
Acquisition of Ventilators
The AARC released an issue paper providing guidelines for acquisition of ventilators to meet the demands for patient care during times of pandemic flu and other mass casualty incidents. The full guidelines were also published.
Resources on Ethics
Ethical Considerations for Decision Making Regarding Allocation of Mechanical Ventilators during a Severe Influenza Pandemic or Other Public Health Emergency
This document provides ethical considerations that the Ethics Subcommittee of the Advisory Committee to the Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) proposes to aid in the decision making specific to allocation of mechanical ventilators during a severe influenza pandemic. Theintent of this document is to provide decision makers at all levels–federal, tribal, territorial, state, and local–with an overview of the complex ethical landscape associated with decision making about allocation of scarce life-sustaining healthcare resources. This document is not meant to serve as detailed guidance about allocation decisions. Rather it is intended to serve as a conceptual framework to assist the planning process. Planning will need to occur at the state, local, and institutional level to develop specific operational details and implementation steps. Thus, this document does not address how to approach specific allocation decisions, but instead highlights ethical standards and principles relevant to allocation of ventilators during a severepandemic or other public health emergency and discusses some of the advantages and disadvantages inherent in different approaches to allocation.
The Toughest Triage — Allocating Ventilators in a Pandemic
This 2020 article was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Fair Allocation of Scarce Medical Resources in the Time of Covid-19
This 2020 article was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
