Administrative liability may be problem after disaster
Special Report: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina
Administrative liability may be problem after disaster
Hurricane Katrina exposed questions of professional liability for facilities and individual providers, either for failing to have a disaster plan in effect or failure to properly implement the plan, says Donna Klein, JD, of the law firm McGlinchey Stafford in New Orleans.
Those failures might give rise to claims of administrative liability that might not fall under professional liability policies, says Klein, a leading health care attorney who represents several hospitals in the New Orleans area. She advised the governor of Louisiana on health care policy in the wake of the hurricane.
Credentialing became an immediate risk management issue after the hurricane, she reports. With all state offices based in New Orleans unavailable after the storm, health care providers had no way to confirm credentials of anyone offering to help provide medical care. In many cases, providers had to take people's word for their credentials and let them provide care, but Klein says the problem illustrated a common failing in disaster planning.
“You need to include a fall-back position if you get people applying from out of state or who weren't on your medical staff before. If your state boards of nursing and medical examining are out of commission, you need a way to check people out," she says. “In our state, the governor suspended the licensure requirement for out-of-state doctors and said you should get a copy of their license and a photo ID."
Louisiana also announced that physicians offering to help in the disaster would be considered agents of the state and therefore covered under its insurance program for state employees.
Hurricane Katrina exposed questions of professional liability for facilities and individual providers, either for failing to have a disaster plan in effect or failure to properly implement the plan, says Donna Klein, JD, of the law firm McGlinchey Stafford in New Orleans.Subscribe Now for Access
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