This three-part series—Part 1 covered patient confidentiality and Part 2 covered maintaining office safety—reviews a few topics giving physicians concern during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Malpractice Liability
This is primarily a concern for retired doctors who are answering the call to come back to assist overwhelmed hospitals, but who no longer have malpractice coverage. The first thing to check is whether the state has an exemption from liability for COVID-19 care, whether there is an emergency worker statute that either immunizes or indemnifies the doctor, or whether the hospital will be providing indemnification.
A Good Samaritan law cannot, however, be relied upon. These cover care outside of medical facilities that is rendered to individuals to whom the practitioner does not owe a duty. Even a hospital that is low on resources or overcrowded is still a hospital, and if you are working as physician, you will have a duty to all patients under your care and for whom you are on-call.
The most essential issue in limiting liability, though, is self-assessment. In a setting in which your skills may not be as good as those of a specialist but you can still be of benefit to the patient, an informed consenting discussion with the patient about any limitations can be adequate, but modern critical care and its technology are not roles that you can step into if, say, you have been in private practice as a neurologist for the last 30 years, there is no on-the-spot training that can compensate for that, and the patients are in no position to select their caregivers.
In this regard, also bear in mind that even immunity laws do not cover gross negligence, which would be acting so recklessly that it shows a disregard for patient safety. Accepting to intubate a patient when the last time that you tried to do so was as a supervised intern would be such conduct, however well-intentioned you are, and would remove you from the law’s protection. It is therefore up to you, if you do re-enter to help, to specify what you can and cannot do… and it is very likely that they will be glad to have you in the ER or clinic using your skills well.
This article was written by Dr. Medlaw, a physician and medical malpractice attorney.
