Torrey: Article Focuses on Accidents to Hospital Volunteers| Staff Compensation Information

from David B. Torrey

Thursday, August 26, 2021 | 0

In a new, practical article – falling into the category of risk management advice – the authors identify and explain the federal legal and regulatory agencies that govern hospital planning for emergency situations, with an emphasis on the sensitive issue of how such institutions should address injury or death Volunteer deaths.

David B. Torrey

Compensation for Workers and Criminal Immunity are topics throughout the Pandemic, Disaster, and Other Emergency Medical Volunteer Service: Management Best Practices, by John I. Winn, Seth Chatfield, and Kevin H. McGovern.

The authors dedicate a special part of the article to considerations for the protection of workers’ compensation insurance. Unsurprisingly, the authors identify a variety of state compensation and volunteering laws that add uncertainty to the coverage analysis. In this regard, it can be noted that some states offer volunteer protection while others cannot.

The attempt by a hospital to demand a “voluntary release from liability” is fraught with similar uncertainty: “Weighing up” [of] the use of voluntary disclaimers would require a detailed analysis of the legal situation and case law of the host state. “

The authors review the National Incident Management System (NIMS), a project by FEMA, which and compensation regulations as well as tort liability laws usually cover the deployed personnel from private sector volunteers.

While the authors identify one law, the Uniform Emergency Volunteer Health Practitioners Act, designed to “address the complexities of compensation for cross-border volunteer health workers,” only 18 states and the District of Columbia have adopted its provisions.

The authors strongly advocate that hospitals maintain emergency plans that fully address the issue of volunteers. “Preparing for worst-case scenarios,” they warn, “involves examining all reasonable measures to reduce the risk that the responding volunteers will harm others … or harm themselves.”

The article concludes with a list of 18 voluntary intensive recommendations / best practices that hospitals should consider when preparing or changing their emergency plans. One of these is the inclusion of a statement in the hospital’s emergency manual stating “whether (or which) volunteers are covered by workers’ compensation insurance or commercial insurance”.

David B. Torrey is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and a Labor Compensation Judge for the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry. This entry was posted with permission from the Workers’ Compensation Law Professors blog.