L.A. County Emergency Medical Services Agency also told EMS workers to give less oxygen to patients
TUESDAY, Jan. 5, 2021 (HealthDay News) — The Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Services Agency has told its workers not to take patients who are likely to die to hospitals, including those in cardiac arrest who the crew believe cannot be revived, CBS News reported Tuesday.
The agency also told EMS workers to give less oxygen to patients. Since the pandemic, supplies have been strained.
Since the memo appeared online, many have questioned if it meant that first responders would not take stroke and heart attack patients to the hospital because of the COVID-19 surge, CBS News reported.
Medical director of the L.A. County Emergency Medical Services Agency, Marianne Gausche-Hill, M.D., told CBS News, “[W]e are not abandoning resuscitation. We are absolutely doing best practice resuscitation and that is do it in the field, do it right away… What we’re asking is that — which is slightly different than before — is that we are emphasizing the fact that transporting these patients arrested leads to very poor outcomes. We knew that already and we just don’t want to impact our hospitals.”
CBS News Article
Emergency Medical Services Agency Memo 1
Emergency Medical Services Agency Memo 2
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