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When do caregivers ignore the veil of ignorance? An empirical study on medical triage decision–making

In principle, all patients deserve to receive optimal medical treatment equally. However, in situations in which there is scarcity of time or resources, medical treatment must be prioritized based on a triage. The conventional guidelines of medical triage mandate that treatment should be provided ba...

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Autores principales: Gold, Azgad, Greenberg, Binyamin, Strous, Rael, Asman, Oren
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Netherlands 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7781192/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33398490
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11019-020-09992-x
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author Gold, Azgad
Greenberg, Binyamin
Strous, Rael
Asman, Oren
author_facet Gold, Azgad
Greenberg, Binyamin
Strous, Rael
Asman, Oren
author_sort Gold, Azgad
collection PubMed
description In principle, all patients deserve to receive optimal medical treatment equally. However, in situations in which there is scarcity of time or resources, medical treatment must be prioritized based on a triage. The conventional guidelines of medical triage mandate that treatment should be provided based solely on medical necessity regardless of any non-medical value-oriented considerations (“worst-first”). This study empirically examined the influence of value-oriented considerations on medical triage decision–making. Participants were asked to prioritize medical treatment relating to four case scenarios of an emergency situation resulting from a car collision. The cases differ by situational characteristics pertaining to the at-fault driver, which were related to culpability attribution. In three case scenarios most participants gave priority to the most severely injured individual, unless the less severely injured individual was their brother. Nevertheless, in the aftermath of a vehicle-ramming terror attack most participants prioritized the less severely injured individual (“victim-first”). Our findings indicate that when caregivers are presented with concrete highly conflictual triage situations their choices may be based on value-oriented considerations related to contextual characteristics of the emergency situation. Philosophical and practical ramifications of our findings are discussed.
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spelling pubmed-77811922021-01-05 When do caregivers ignore the veil of ignorance? An empirical study on medical triage decision–making Gold, Azgad Greenberg, Binyamin Strous, Rael Asman, Oren Med Health Care Philos Scientific Contribution In principle, all patients deserve to receive optimal medical treatment equally. However, in situations in which there is scarcity of time or resources, medical treatment must be prioritized based on a triage. The conventional guidelines of medical triage mandate that treatment should be provided based solely on medical necessity regardless of any non-medical value-oriented considerations (“worst-first”). This study empirically examined the influence of value-oriented considerations on medical triage decision–making. Participants were asked to prioritize medical treatment relating to four case scenarios of an emergency situation resulting from a car collision. The cases differ by situational characteristics pertaining to the at-fault driver, which were related to culpability attribution. In three case scenarios most participants gave priority to the most severely injured individual, unless the less severely injured individual was their brother. Nevertheless, in the aftermath of a vehicle-ramming terror attack most participants prioritized the less severely injured individual (“victim-first”). Our findings indicate that when caregivers are presented with concrete highly conflictual triage situations their choices may be based on value-oriented considerations related to contextual characteristics of the emergency situation. Philosophical and practical ramifications of our findings are discussed. Springer Netherlands 2021-01-04 2021 /pmc/articles/PMC7781192/ /pubmed/33398490 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11019-020-09992-x Text en © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. part of Springer Nature 2021 This article is made available via the PMC Open Access Subset for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic.
spellingShingle Scientific Contribution
Gold, Azgad
Greenberg, Binyamin
Strous, Rael
Asman, Oren
When do caregivers ignore the veil of ignorance? An empirical study on medical triage decision–making
title When do caregivers ignore the veil of ignorance? An empirical study on medical triage decision–making
title_full When do caregivers ignore the veil of ignorance? An empirical study on medical triage decision–making
title_fullStr When do caregivers ignore the veil of ignorance? An empirical study on medical triage decision–making
title_full_unstemmed When do caregivers ignore the veil of ignorance? An empirical study on medical triage decision–making
title_short When do caregivers ignore the veil of ignorance? An empirical study on medical triage decision–making
title_sort when do caregivers ignore the veil of ignorance? an empirical study on medical triage decision–making
topic Scientific Contribution
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7781192/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33398490
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11019-020-09992-x
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