I have to disagree, politely, with a couple points-
Ventilators are not in short supply, practically every home oxygen company in the country that does home ventilator care has them readily available . . .
Last worst case scenario is you bag them (use an ambu-bag manually until mechanical ventilation is available). I personally experienced this during a power failure, people taking shifts to bag the vent dependent patient.
Thank you for the interesting comments.
The CDC uses the following planning assumptions:
In a moderate flu pandemic, 64,875 Americans will require mechanical ventilation, and in a severe flu pandemic 745,500 will.
There are currently a little over 100,000 ventilators on hand in the entire country. Most of them are already in use on any given day.
The Strategic National Stockpile contains about 6,000 ventilators, but has been acquiring more. The SNS is the nation's main resource for large scale surge medical supplies, equipment, and medications in the event of a national medical emergency.
What we are discussing, for planning purposes, is mechanical ventilation capable of controlling rate, tidal volume and PEEP. Some of the possible alternatives you describe sound interesting, but are not the same thing, with the same capacities, as those used for planning purposes. Maybe somebody with more expertise will weigh in.
How many people did you need to bag one patient, and for how long? Depending on pulmonary and anatomic resistance, you can get pretty tired, pretty quick. Around the clock bagging will take a lot of people, and it is not very consistent or reliable, but it can be done.
And home care is alive and well, the only problem there is a nursing shortage, not the capacity for care. . . .
My point exactly. There is a shortage. Moreover, many nurses currently working in home health care are expected to be drawn into acute or custodial care settings to meet acute surge demand and absenteeism shortfalls. People today lack the skills, resources and ability to provide lay "home nursing" as was often done in the past.
One school of thought is since there are so many opportunities for women now, that they no longer seek the traditional nursing school path in the USA. I am curious if others agree.
I agree.
Jeff