OHSU’s and Legacy Emanuel’s children’s hospitals implement crisis care standards - OregonLive

The two hospitals providing the vast bulk of Oregon’s pediatric intensive care capacity have moved to crisis standards of care, the latest step by the state’s health care system to battle an influx of respiratory disease cases among children.

The crisis standards, developed by the Oregon Health Authority, help hospitals decide which patients get care when resources are severely limited, and allow them to loosen staffing standards so that nurses can care for more patients.

The two hospitals, Doernbecher Children’s Hospital at Oregon Health & Science University and Randall Children’s Hospital at Legacy Emanuel, account for most of the state’s pediatric intensive care unit beds.

A week ago, there were a total of 40 staffed pediatric intensive care beds statewide, of which three were available, an Oregon Health Authority spokesperson said at the time.

A spokesperson for the Legacy Health did not say how many of its pediatric intensive care beds are available.

An OHSU spokesperson said its pediatric intensive care unit was “at capacity.” The hospital is not yet triaging care, but it is using crisis standards to more effectively allocate its resources.