Preparing for the Worst-Case Scenario in a Pandemic: Intensivists Simulate Prioritization and Triage of Scarce ICU Resources.

Objectives: Simulation and evaluation of a prioritization protocol at a German university hospital using a convergent parallel mixed methods design.

Design: Prospective single-center cohort study with a quantitative analysis of ICU patients and qualitative content analysis of two focus groups with intensivists.

Setting: Five ICUs of internal medicine and anesthesiology at a German university hospital.