New York Moves to Shield Doctors from Lawsuits While Fighting Coronavirus
April 02 2020 - 07:39PM
Dow Jones News
By Jacob Gershman and Melanie Grayce West
New York lawmakers are expected to approve a bill that would
grant sweeping civil- and criminal-liability protections to
hospitals and health care workers treating the surge of patients
infected with the coronavirus.
The statute largely lifts the threat of malpractice lawsuits at
a time when New York hospitals are reeling from ventilator and
protective-gear shortages and overcrowding that could force them to
make wrenching choices about allocating lifesaving care.
Titled "the Emergency Disaster Treatment Protection Act," the
legislation is tucked inside the budget bill passed by the state
Senate and awaiting approval of the Assembly. Democratic Gov.
Andrew Cuomo is expected to sign the measure.
The Greater New York Hospital Association, a trade group, wrote
a letter to its members Thursday, saying it drafted, advocated for
the legislation and secured its inclusion into the state's annual
budget package.
An official for Mr. Cuomo's office said the state asked
hospitals to increase capacity by at least 50%, giving flexibility
to meet that goal through alternative facilities including nursing
homes, dormitory rooms, ambulatory centers or even a tent in
Central Park.
In addition, the state has asked retired physicians and other
health care workers to come back into medicine. Current state
malpractice laws aren't flexible enough for the crisis presented by
coronavirus, the official said.
The state needed a law that stands behind physicians and
systems. "There is no applicable standard of care when you are
dealing with a pandemic crisis," the official said.
The state's hospital industry described it as a fair
accommodation to extraordinary circumstances.
Often at the direction of state authorities, hospitals have had
to rapidly expand their medical ranks, construct new space and
redeploy resources, said Laura Alfredo, the hospital association's
general counsel. All of the extreme measures and patient deaths
made the hospitals and their staffs more vulnerable to costly
litigation, she said.
The statute's protections aren't unlimited. The bill doesn't
excuse intentional criminal misconduct, reckless misconduct or
intentional infliction of harm to patients.
"You don't want to protect egregious conduct. That was never our
goal," said Ms. Alfredo.
Such protections from lawsuits aren't unprecedented. Virginia
has a law that extends similar protections to health-care providers
responding to declared disasters.
The New York bill doesn't just protect physicians and nurses but
the boards and administrators running the institutions. It also
covers nursing homes and a number of other health-care workers. It
protects them not only from tort claims but the less likely
possibility of criminal prosecutions stemming from loss of
life.
The immunity would also expire whenever the state of emergency
Mr. Cuomo declared in March is lifted.
Arthur Caplan, a professor of bioethics at New York University
Grossman School of Medicine in Manhattan, said health care workers,
including students, have worried about the legal risks of providing
treatment on the front lines of the crisis.
"This is a very important grant of immunity," Dr. Caplan said.
"It shows thoughtful understanding of the fact that we are in very
terrible times, and we have to adjust our expectation of what's to
be provided to patients and what institutions can do."
The immunity expands upon an earlier executive order issued by
Mr. Cuomo during the coronavirus emergency.
Write to Jacob Gershman at jacob.gershman@wsj.com and Melanie
Grayce West at melanie.west@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 02, 2020 19:24 ET (23:24 GMT)
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