“The allocation decisions will be to decide which patients will obtain which resources and, in some circumstances, may involve decisions to take scarce resources from one patient and give them to another who is most likely to benefit from them,” the guidelines state.
The extraordinary change comes as Los Angeles County hospitals treat more than 8,000 patients with Covid-19, an increasing number that show no signs of slowing down as the region continues to report thousands of new cases each day.
The most likely shortage will be staff, the guidelines say. If there is a shortage of respiratory therapists, for example, the officer will decide whether the patient’s ventilator will be administered by a therapist or doctor.
The guidelines emphasize fairness and equity, but note that frontline healthcare professionals will have some preference.
Screening officers are part of the county’s emergency plan and must be assigned when a hospital goes into “crisis care mode”.
Although no hospital in Los Angeles County is in that position today, four notified the state that “they were approaching or going into crisis treatment at any given time”.
The California Department of Public Health declined to name specific hospitals for fear that it would discourage future critical notifications.
When a hospital notifies the state that it has entered a service crisis, regional and state resources are mobilized immediately to return the hospital to conventional or contingency care as soon as possible, according to the state health department.
No California county is currently rationing supplies or life-saving supplies, the department said.
CNN’s Theresa Waldrop contributed to this report.