Diminishing disparities in U.S. crisis standards of care: Medical and legal challenges.

Abstract

Despite a decade of planning and development of crisis standards of care (CSC) in the U.S. [1], real-time experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic and other disasters have highlighted shortcomings involving potentially disparate outcomes among patients across racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and other groups. Diverse causes of health inequities underlie critical distinctions in medico-legal approaches to allocating scarce resources. What is medically-warranted to save patients’ lives must be balanced against anti-discrimination laws.