License to serve: a model law could make it easier for medical volunteers to respond immediately during emergencies.

• Author: Foxhall, Kathryn

When the next natural disaster, epidemic or terrorism act hits, will the stricken states be able to put enough health professionals from other states quickly to work?

Physicians and other health care practitioners from all over responded to the Gulf Coast hurricanes of 2005, but licensure questions held many back, and others did not come because of liability concerns.

Some who showed up helped in other ways while they waited. Others took the chance and helped victims anyway. In the face of these stories, the Uniform Law Commission began in 2006 to write a model state law to create a standard system that would put valued volunteers to work faster and in a more coordinated manner, and allow professionals from other states to understand what protections they have.

The final version of the "Uniform Emergency Volunteer Healthcare Practitioners Act" was completed last fall, although earlier versions have already been passed in three states. It has been introduced in at least six states this year and a coalition of professional organizations is pushing it across the country.

Twelve attorneys at the Uniform Law Commission drafted this model law, working with about 21 national "observer" organizations who participated in the discussions, including the American Red Cross, the American Medical Association and the Federation of State Medical Boards.

"Every state in its emergency management code has the power to waive state laws in the event of disastrous emergencies. And they do it routinely," says attorney Raymond Pepe, who chaired the drafting committee. "The problem is they all do it differently and this ad hoc reliance on emergency powers hasn't proved particularly effective."

Pepe explains that in an emergency, issuing executive orders may not be the highest priority. "You want to save lives first," he says. "Disruptions in communication may make it difficult, even when the orders are signed, for people to know that they were signed."

The proposed law, which each state can reject, adopt or adapt, would cover the services of a range of health professionals, as well as pharmacists, morticians and veterinarians. It would do three major things to encourage professionals to volunteer:

* Establish a system of uniform, quick recognition of licenses for registered out-of-state professionals.

* Provide volunteers with some liability protection.

* Give them workers' compensation if they don't otherwise have access to that kind of coverage.

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