Imagine a major disaster strikes (earthquake, hurricane, terrorist attack, pandemic flu, etc.). Suddenly, there aren’t enough medical resources to provide the normal level of health care to everyone in need.

1. Present your position in no more than 2000 words.
2. The word count excludes the title page, reference list and appendices. Where assessment questions have been reprinted from the assessment brief these will also be excluded from the word count. ALL other printed words ARE included in the word count. Printed words include those contained within charts and tables.
3. Assignments more than 5% in excess of the word limit will be penalized. Please state the number of words used.
4. Marks will be awarded for a logical approach as well as accurate content.
5. Use a cover page with your name and title of the assignment.
6. All typed work should be in no less than Arial font size 10 or Times New Roman font size 12.
7. Please use double space for all your work.
8. Please use Vancouver (MLA) Referencing System. You must ensure that the submitted assignment is all your own work and that all sources used are correctly attributed. Penalties apply to assignments that show evidence of academic unfair practice.[https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_formatting_and_style_guide.html]
9. References should be less than 5 years old and peer-reviewed journal articles or reputable websites.
10. Please submit your assignment to the designated drop box on Blackboard. No other submission method is acceptable.
11. Similarity Index for this paper is 30%. Any paper with similarity index greater than 30% will be penalized

Scenario: Imagine a major disaster strikes (earthquake, hurricane, terrorist attack, pandemic flu, etc.). Suddenly, there aren’t enough medical resources to provide the normal level of health care to everyone in need.

Deadly Virus Scenario:

A new deadly virus has killed many thousands of people around the world. It is highly contagious and is now spreading quickly in the United States. There is only one known treatment for people who fall ill with this virus an antiviral drug that is in short supply worldwide. It will take several months to make enough of this drug to treat most of the people in the country who need it. A vaccine to protect against this virus will not be ready for even longer, so the numbers of people sickened by the virus will continue to rise. The virus reached your community last week. People of all walks of life have started to fall ill, including health care and other emergency workers. Of the people who catch the virus, 20 percent will die if they are not treated with the drug. Although everyone is at risk of dying, experts have determined that among those who catch the virus, healthy young adults and pregnant women face the highest risk of death by far. Your community’s public health agency will receive its first supply of the antiviral drug in a few days, but only enough to treat fewer than half of the seriously ill patients who currently need this treatment. The agency will divide the drugs between the local hospitals and temporary clinics that have been set up to handle the overflow of patients. The hospitals and clinic will have to make do with whatever supply of the antiviral drug they receive there is no other source from which they can get more at the present time. Patients who are chosen for treatment will need to take the drug for 7 days. The agency is now preparing guidelines to help hospitals and clinics decide which patients to treat with this limited supply of the antiviral drug.

Consider the case scenario and using process mapping, propose your position from a Hospital’s Chief Public Health Officer’s perspective. 

Questions:

1. Should the agency’s guidelines give health care workers priority for treatment? What about other workers on whom society relies for saving lives (e.g., electrical power and water supply workers, police, firefighters, and other key workers)?

1. What are the best reasons for and against such a policy?

1. Does a health care worker’s specific role or contact with patients matter (e.g., patient care providers such as doctors and nurses; custodians or food service workers; managers or administrative staff)?

2. In order to save the most lives, the agency is planning to direct all hospitals and clinics to restrict use of the antiviral drug to sick patients in the two high risk groups (pregnant women and previously healthy young adults) until more of the drug becomes available.

1. Do you agree with this policy? Why or why not?

1. Is it important for all hospitals and clinics in the city to follow the same rules when deciding which patients to treat? Why or why not?

3. It is now day 3 of treatment for patients in the first group to receive the drug. Two of those patients have not responded to treatment, and their doctors now believe that they will almost certainly die. If treatment is stopped now, there will still be enough of the drug left over to treat one more patient who might be saved. The families of the two dying patients will not agree to end the treatment.

1. Should the hospital go against their wishes and use the remaining doses to try to save another patient?

1. Why or why not?