'There's nothing about it that will feel right': Hospitals are gearing up to choose which patients to save if they run low on crucial equipment

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Ethicists are working around the clock to draft guidance for hospitals about how to ration scarce resources like ventilators if they run short because of the coronavirus.

Governors are making sure healthcare workers won't be held liable for the tough decisions ahead, like taking away one patient's ventilator and giving it to someone else with a better shot at surviving.

Experts at Johns Hopkins and the American Medical Association are fielding lots of calls from hospitals, doctors and public health officials about what to do.

Those tasked with the administration of allocation programs are feeling the pressure. "If this has to happen, there's nothing about it that will feel right. And there's all kinds of ways in which it will feel wrong," one coordinator told us.

New York could be the first state to see ventilator allocation, but hospitals in Washington State, Colorado, Maryland, Nebraska and Wyoming are gearing up for it, too.

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Hospitals are preparing to make difficult decisions about which patients to save and how to ration care should they be overwhelmed by the novel coronavirus.

Experts caution that hospitals in the US are at risk of running out of workers, beds, and protective equipment. By one estimate, the US could require up to 400,000 more ventilators in the next month or two but it has no more than 20,000 left in the national stockpile. Earlier this week, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said states were competing to buy ventilators in bidding wars.See the rest of the story at Business InsiderNOW WATCH: A 45-year-long study discovered trends in successful hyper-intelligent childrenSee Also:Everything we know about the coronavirus, from who's most at risk to where new cases are spreadingA comprehensive timeline of the new coronavirus pandemic, from China's first COVID-19 case to the presentThe coronavirus is upending medical research for cancer to heart disease, as dozens of biotechs put clinical trials on hold

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