Idaho patients in hospital halls amid COVID rationed care

By REBECCA BOONE
Associated Press

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho’s move to crisis standards of care this week is allowing some hospitals to ration health care amid an onslaught of coronavirus patients and officials are warning the the rationing could spread to hospitals statewide. The main hospital currently affected by the designation is Kootenai Health in the city of Coeur d’Alene. Some COVID-19 patients there are being treated at a conference center that now resembles a field hospital because the main hospital building is full. Smaller hospitals in the region are not rationing health care but they are frequently unable to transfer patients with serious conditions to Kootenai Health. Idaho has one of the lowest U.S. vaccination rates.