Lauren Fields Assignment #2 PHIL 157 Vadar Hasan Hospital Administrators and Their Role in Medical Triage Decision Making as a Response to Covid-19 By Lauren Fields In Ontario, Covid-19 has been infecting people for over two years. Hospitals have been overflowing with people and resources have been running thin, leading doctors to turn to medical triage to decide who has priority and should get access to the resources. Invoking triage teams made up of both trained medical and non-medical professionals like bioethicists and representatives of specific social sectors to make the decisions, would not only reduce the emotional burden placed upon healthcare workers but also eliminate discrimination people face when the decisions are made. This is just one opinion; however, one can argue that hospital administrators would be the best-suited people to make these decisions and carry the moral burden. Seeing as hospital administrators do not work directly with patients, they can make informed decisions regarding medical triage without feeling an emotional attachment to patients, and make decisions by looking at the monetary aspect and not the emotional one. When working in a hospital it is commonly seen that connections are formed between doctors, nurses, patients, and their families, as they work with them hands-on. Hospital administrators, on the other hand, do not create connections like these, instead, they work in offices and the only patients they have are the ones they read about in reports and on paper. When it comes to making medical triage decisions this becomes a crucial factor. One might think
that the people who work closely with patients should be making these decisions, however, by having no emotional connections the decision-making process is more manageable and does not bear as heavy a moral burden. As well, with no real physical and emotional connection to patients, there is no underlying bias that is factored in when the triage decisions are made. Making decisions based strictly on the facts, charts, and overall health of the patients presented to them, hospital administrators can come to a verdict in the fairest way possible. Even though medical staff are trained so that all decisions made are to be made fairly and with the health and recovery of patients in mind, it is human nature to want to help those with whom you have created a connection before helping those with whom you do not know and have only just met. When making medical triage decisions this is not an appropriate way of approaching the situation and that is why having no connection to patients is beneficial. Hospital administrators have only two main concerns in mind when it comes to these decisions and those are resources available and a patient's likelihood of survival, not who they favour more and who they would rather save. As a result of the pandemic resources in hospitals have been limited, and with hospital beds filling up these resources have become scarce. Hospital administrators are responsible for ensuring that during times like these, the resources are