Title: CHPPD Members Invited to Send Comments on Uniform Emergency Volunteer Healthcare Services Act by July 1
Author:
Section/SPIG: Community Health Planning and Policy Development
Issue Date:
One of the most unique aspects of the Community Health Planning and Policy Development Section is the diversity of its membership’s professional preparation, perspective and commitment to systems thinking. We have been invited by the Center for Law and the Public’s Health at Georgetown and Johns Hopkins Universities and the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws to join them in crafting a model state law to address the very critical issue of how to handle interstate emergency health care services during disasters such as Hurricane Katrina.
James G. Hodge, Jr., JD, LLM, Executive Director of the Center for Law and the Public’s Health, is excited about providing CHPPD members with the opportunity to provide comment based on their experience. “Where else could we find such an expert panel as the membership of CHPPD and others in APHA?”, he said. The full working title of the draft Act is: “Uniform Emergency Volunteer Healthcare Services Act.” CHPPD members may remember hearing of the Center or Hodge based on the work surrounding the development of the Turning Point Model State Public Health Act. The draft Act can be found at: http://www.nccusl.org/Update/CommitteeSearchResults.aspx?committee=271 .
HIGXYZ62HIGZYX CHPPD members are encouraged to be pro-active and join forces with NCCUSL and the Center for Law and the Public’s Health in this very important policy endeavor. Members are requested to provide their comments via email in care of: myers@telerama.com with this acronym in the subject heading “UEVHSA” by July 1, 2006.
Here is a brief excerpt from the preface remarks associated with the draft Act: “…The human devastation in the Gulf Coast states from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita demonstrated significant shortcomings in the ability of the nation’s emergency services delivery system to efficiently and expeditiously incorporate into disaster relief operations the services provided by private sector health care professionals. This includes employees and volunteers of non-governmental disaster relief organizations who were needed to meet surge capacity in affected areas and provide timely health care assistance to hundreds of thousands of victims of the disaster. The magnitude of the disaster swamped the ability of organizations to effectively handle relief operations. Additional resources were readily available throughout the country and thousands of healthcare professionals immediately volunteered to provide assistance. However, state-based emergency response systems lacked a uniform process and legal framework to recognize out-of-state professional licenses and other benefits necessary to authorize and encourage these volunteers to provide healthcare services in many affected areas. In some jurisdictions, volunteer health personnel were not adequately protected against exposure to tort claims or injuries or deaths suffered by the workers themselves.”