Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #109742

James G. Hodge, JD, LLM, Center for the Law and the Public's Health at Georgetown and Johns Hopkins Universities, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Hampton House, Room 580, 624 North Broadway, Baltimore, MD 21205, (410)955-7624, jhodge@jhsph.edu and Lance A. Gable, JD, MPH, Center for Law and the Public's Health at Georgetown and Johns Hopkins Universities, Georgetown University Law Center, 600 New Jersey Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20001.

The development of a robust and versatile workforce of medical and public health emergency responders is a high priority across the United States. Most plans to meet emergency response needs rely on significant participation by medical and public health volunteers to fill surge capacity and provide necessary expertise. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) is currently working with state and territorial departments of health to implement Emergency Systems for Advance Registration of Volunteer Health Professionals (ESAR-VHP). These systems will facilitate the assignment and use of state and territorial volunteer health professionals in public health crises and other emergencies. Complex legal and regulatory issues surround the provision of health services and treatment by volunteers during public health emergencies. This session will examine these legal and regulatory issues including (1) the authority to declare public health or general states of emergency; (2) civil and criminal liability of volunteers and entities accepting or providing volunteers; (3)licensing/ credentialing of volunteer health professionals; (4) workers' compensation issues; and (5) other peripheral issues. The presenters, James G. Hodge, Jr., J.D., LL.M., and Lance Gable, J.D., M.P.H., from the Center for Law and the Public's Health at Georgetown and Johns Hopkins Universities, have worked closely with HRSA and national and state experts to address these issues. They will discuss the impact of these legal and regulatory issues on the development of ESAR-VHP and suggest possible options and recommendations for their resolution.

Learning Objectives:

• • Address the major legal issues that underlie ESAR-VHP and other similar volunteer health professional advance registration systems;
• • Provide health practitioners with information on the effects that law may have on their participation in an advance registration system and as a volunteer emergency responder;
• • Provide hospitals and other health entities with information about the impact of law on their operations involving volunteer health professionals during an emergency;
• • Provide state and local government officials with information on current legal issues related to the use of volunteer health professionals during an emergency;
• • Discuss possible options and recommendations for resolving these legal and regulatory issues.

Keywords: Bioterrorism, Law

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation