Tort
11/19/2009 11:51:10 AM EST
Sharona Hoffman on Measure for Measure: The Government's Response to H1N1 and Remaining Liability Issues
The increasing number of H1N1 cases raises significant liability concerns. This article provides an overview of the governments’ legal response to the H1N1 influenza outbreak and relevant statutory provisions. It also highlights current gaps in the law and remaining concerns for health-care providers. Ms Hoffman is Professor of Law and Bioethics and Co-Director of the Law-Medicine Center, Case Western Reserve University School of Law.
“By the end of October 2009, forty-eight states were reporting widespread influenza activity. Visits to doctors, hospitalizations, and deaths related to influenza and pneumonia were increasing dramatically and were much higher than expected for this period based on past influenza patterns,” explains Sharoma Hoffman. “These trends raise significant liability concerns for health-care providers. If patient loads become unmanageable, will providers be increasingly vulnerable to medical-malpractice litigation? Can the government implement measures to protect overburdened clinicians working in exigent circumstances?”
“The federal government and several state governments have employed the legal tools available to them to address a public-health emergency and to provide a degree of protection to health-care workers involved in emergency-response activities,” states Professor Hoffman. “Although a wide range of liability protections is available under emergency declarations that have been issued and other legal provisions, health-care providers working in the private sector must recognize that gaps exist in the current immunity scheme, which leave them vulnerable to suit even at the height of a public-health emergency.”
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