| C. C. Rider |
01-04-2021 10:53 AM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by BayLady57
(Post 1882072)
Actually there is such a tool available which is used by the VA. This tool called the Care Assessment Needs or CAN tool that was established in 2013 when the PACT model of care was being rolled out with the goal to better manage chronic diseases and provide earlier intervention to reduce rehospitalizations. This tool compiles multifaceted patient data which generates a score that identify patients who statistically are at the highest risk for hospitalization and mortality. So for example, an 85 year old with few if any chronic diseases, minimal if any hospitalizations, and lives in a single family dwelling will generate a lower CAN score than a 65 year old who lives in a communal living environment such as a nursing home and has multiple chronic diseases that resulted in frequent hospitalizations. Being a VA primary care R.N. I use the CAN tool daily to identify patients that I need to outreach frequently to assess for evolving status changes so that early interventions can be implemented to avoid further status decline.
Not sure if the VA will be using the entire CAN score to determine which patients will be 1st offered Covid vaccines. But I am pretty certain that those Vets residing in communal living situations such as nursing homes and Vets living in group homes and shelters regardless of age and health statue will be offered 1st and encouraged to receive Covid vaccines because due to their communal living situations they are at a very high risk for Covid contraction and spreading it to others they live with communally.
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Yeah, but the population of veterans receiving care in VA facilities is a tiny fraction of the hundreds of millions of people in the US who all want to be vaccinated RIGHT NOW! How do you propose that all the information be obtained and input into computers for every one of these hundreds of millions of people in the next week or so?
Also, since everyone has their own reasons or agenda as to why they should be first in line, it's unlikely that they would go along with a system such as the VA uses unless it put THEM first in line. That's just the way people are today.
Veterans, OTOH, are pretty much accustomed to being viewed as just one of huge group whose individual needs are subordinated to the overall group mission. The general public today has no such view of things and is unlikely to agree to ANY rating policy that doesn't put THEM first in line.
That's why I think the AGE ONLY method of determining priority is the best, easiest, and quickest to implement and use. Anything other than that is going to result in constant conflict and disagreement over whose condition warrants more consideration than someone else's condition. |
