Idaho hospitals fully deactivate crisis standards of care after three months
The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare deactivated crisis standards of care in North Idaho on Monday morning, meaning the state is fully out of crisis standards for the first time in more than three months. The department said in a news release that while hospitals are still experiencing a high volume of patients because of COVID-19, the number of patients no longer exceeds the health care resources available.
Crisis standards of care allow hospitals to triage patients based on the severity of their condition and likelihood to survive. They were implemented in North Idaho on Sept. 6 and in the rest of the state on Sept. 16.
Dave Jeppesen, director of the Department of Health and Welfare, convened the Crisis Standards of Care Activation Advisory Committee on Friday to review the Panhandle Health District. The committee recommended that crisis standards of care be deactivated there after determining the district had moved back to contingency operations, which are one level below crisis standards.
“While this is good news for Idaho, we’re still watching the omicron variant very closely because this is a precarious time,” Jeppesen said in a news release. “Omicron seems to spread more easily between people, and we all need to keep taking precautions against COVID-19 by getting vaccinated or getting a booster dose, wearing masks in crowded areas, physically distancing from others, washing our hands frequently, and staying home if we’re sick to avoid overwhelming our health care systems again.”
Crisis standards of care have been deactivated everywhere else in Idaho since Nov. 22. But hospitals continue to see much higher than normal number of patients because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Most health care systems continue to use contingency care standards.
As of Dec. 15, the state was reporting 302 hospitalized patients with COVID-19. That’s down from a peak of 793 on Sept. 24 but still higher than Idaho has experienced for most of the pandemic.
This story was originally published December 20, 2021 at 9:50 AM.
