August 31, 2023

Allocating Blood Products: A New Approach to Scarcity

33 minutes

One of the most difficult problems facing hospitals and health systems today is scarcity of key medical resources. Unfortunately, blood product shortages are not uncommon, and they present significant challenges for patient care. Our guests in this episode developed a specific set of recommendations and a protocol for their hospitals to deal with these situations. They’ve also worked to establish a standard approach across their geographic region, which a lot of locations have not really been able to accomplish. We hope their insights and work can inform other ethicists, hospitals and cities looking to develop similar protocols.

Our guests in this episode include

Dr. Paul Hutchison, Pulmonary Critical Care Physician and Clinical Ethicist at Loyola University Medical Center, Maywood, Illinois.

Dr. Kathy Neely, Physician and Ethicist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Northwestern Medicine, Chicago.

Leah Eisenberg, Director of Clinical Ethics Consultation Services at UI Health, University of Illinois Chicago system. Also, an Attorney and Visiting Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Medical Education.

Additional resources relating to or referenced in this episode:

How do I allocate blood products at the end of life?

How Should Decision Science Inform Scarce Blood Product Allocation?

Insights from Blood Products Management for Pre-Crisis Ethical Resource Allocation

...more