How National Disasters Create Doctors With Borders
Halfway into the 2018 year, a total of 154 mass shootings have occurred in the United States alone. Thousands in Puerto Rico still remain wanting for proper shelter, electricity, water and medical care months after the devastating Hurricanes Irma and Maria.
While accepting injuries and deaths from senseless natural disasters and mass shootings will always be difficult, accepting physician volunteerism should never be.
In times of need where every minute and resource count, administrative regulations forbid doctors from crossing state lines to volunteer their services to patients without jumping the logistical hoop of receiving formal approval. While preventing unqualified personnel from treating patients is important, redundant documentation and proof of good standing and valid licensure can be eliminated with coordination between federal and state governing bodies to avoid treatment-time delays and encourage volunteerism.
Short of issuing a public health and medical state of emergency, as governor Brian Sandoval did after the Las Vegas massacre, this bureaucratic blockade against patriotic doctors ready to offer their skilled services represents a failure in public health readiness and disaster preparation.
Despite the many physicians trained in emergency services willing to serve patients who suffered from the Gulf Coast hurricanes or the Las Vegas massacre, the bitter reality is that our highly trained American physician workforce has more jurisdiction and support in treating patients in Tanzania and Nicaragua than in Texas and Nevada.
“When the federal government declares a natural disaster area after tragedy in our country, many physicians want to do something to help. Currently they are limited in their ability as their license most often will not allow them to practice in another state, and they have no ability to obtain malpractice protection while volunteering,” said Dr. Joel Mayerson, professor of Orthopedics at the Ohio State University College of Medicine and Division Chief of Musculoskeletal Oncology at Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute.
Seven weeks ago, hundreds of orthopedic surgeons from across the country vacated their operating rooms and flocked to Washington, D.C. where they lobbied Congress on Capitol Hill for this issue, among others. One of the key legislative recommendations for these members of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons was passage of The Good Samaritan Health Professionals Act (H.R. 1876), a good faith proposition that allows health care professionals to volunteer their services during a federally declared disaster across state lines without threat of frivolous lawsuits. Moreover, H.R. 1876 proposes cooperation between federal and state board agencies to enable the timely volunteerism and malpractice protection of licensed health care professionals to affected areas during a federally declared disaster.
The Good Samaritan Health Professionals Act builds upon the existing Good Samaritan Law that protects any American bystander or medical professional in providing emergent medical assistance without fear of litigation. In some states like Minnesota and Vermont there even exists a “duty to assist” clause that takes this one step further whereby any failure to assist in calling for emergency services may be considered a petty misdemeanor and result in a fine.
Protecting a doctor who helps the person collapsed on the street should not be any different from protecting the doctor who flies to Nevada to help victims of a mass casualty event. A minimum of nine years of training is prerequisite to becoming a board-certified orthopedic surgeon capable of treating and caring for traumatic and critical injuries that provide life- and limb-saving services in emergency conditions. Rather than discourage this highly trained workforce who all took an oath to “first, do no harm,” we should be finding ways to simplify emergency health care delivery with common sense legislation rather than delay care and discourage volunteerism.
“This law will provide the necessary protection that physicians must have in order to volunteer to help other Americans when it is needed most. It is unfortunate that currently volunteerism such as this can only be done outside the U.S. It is time for this law to pass to allow civic minded physicians to fulfill their goals of helping those in great need,” Dr. Mayerson said.
Originally sponsored by Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, the Good Samaritan Health Professionals Act was approved by the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee and was introduced to the Senate in March 2017. Every day this bill sits on the Senate floor without becoming law increases public health risk for the next disaster.
For doctors who choose to volunteer their time, skill and resources by caring for victims of disaster events on American soil, they should not have to choose between litigation and patriotism.
You can read the original article by Dr. Prem Ramkumar on Forbes Magazine online:
