Crisis Standards of Care reactivated for southwest and south central Idaho

After convening the Crisis Standards of Care Activation Advisory Committee (CSCAAC) Friday, Idaho Department of Health and Welfare (IDHW) Director Dave Jeppesen activated the state’s Crisis Standards of Care (CSC) for Public Health District 3 (Southwest), 4 (Central) and 5 (South Central).

Activating the state’s CSC happens when staff members, supplies or hospital capacity are limited to the point of affecting medical care. The Saint Alphonsus Health System requested the CSC activation last week. IDHW convened the CSCAAC on Jan. 21. The committee recommended that the CSC be activated for the whole state. After reviewing hospital capacity, Jeppesen activated the CSC for the three public health districts covering southwestern and south central Idaho. The Jan. 24 news release announcing the activation stated: “Other regions of the state are likely to move into CSC if current COVID-19 trends continue.”

The reason behind the CSC activation is due to a shortage of both staff members and blood. Due to the spread of the Omicron strain of COVID-19, the national supply of both skilled caregiver labor and blood supply has dried up, so Idaho hospitals are unable to secure enough traveling caregiver workers and blood supplies from out of state. As a result, Idaho hospitals are struggling to maintain essential services and facilities, including intensive care bed capacity “due to inadequate staffing,” according to IDHW.

“The highly contagious Omicron variant has thrown us a curve ball,” Jeppesen remarked in a statement. “Once again, the situation in our hospitals and health systems is dire — we don’t have enough resources to adequately treat patients. Please get vaccinated and boosted if you can and wear a high-quality protective mask in public places. Omicron is so much more contagious than previous variants, and even though a lower percentage of cases are ending up in the hospital, the record number of cases is still putting strain on our health care system.”

This is the third time that IDHW has activated CSC. The IDHW prepared the state’s first CSC in 2020. IDHW implemented the CSC the first time for Public Health Districts 1 (Panhandle) and 2 (North Central) on Sept. 7, 2021, and for the rest of Idaho on Sept. 16, during the surge of the Delta strain COVID-19 last autumn. IDHW lifted the CSC on Nov. 22 for all of Idaho excluding the Panhandle. CSC in the Panhandle were lifted right before Christmas.