Hawaii executive order gives hospital workers immunity from civil liability during COVID-19

Hawaii Gov. David Ige signed an executive order Sept. 1 granting all healthcare workers and facilities immunity from civil liability during the pandemic, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported Sept. 9.

The executive order states that all healthcare facilities, workers and volunteers in Hawaii need to "render assistance in support of the state's response to the COVID-19 emergency." Those who "comply completely with all state and federal orders regarding this emergency, shall be immune from civil liability."

Six details:

1. Hospitals are able to cancel or postpone elective surgeries, triage patients and conserve scarce medical resources as directed by the health department without being held liable for potential consequences, such as patient death or injury.
   
   
2. Hospitals, healthcare workers and volunteers can still be held liable for death, injury or property damage caused by recklessness, gross negligence or willful misconduct.
   
   
3. Mr. Ige said Sept. 3 at a news conference that the state's healthcare facilities are already pushed to the maximum and that the order was created in anticipation of worsening conditions.
   
   
4. "My executive order does outline next steps of what would happen," Mr. Ige said. "It does provide for and acknowledge [a] crisis management situation where care would have to be provided and rationed if we are unable to reduce the census that we see in the hospital — those that need care and certainly would overwhelm the healthcare system."
   
   
5. Dan Brinkman, the CEO of Honolulu-based Hawaii Health Systems East Hawaii Regional, said the executive order is reasonable amid the pandemic. Hawaii's hospitals have been operating at or beyond capacity, Mr. Brinkman told the publication. He said hospitals are not lowering the standard of care, but adjusting routine operations to ensure care for patients.
   
   
6. "It's important to make sure the physician or nurse or any other healthcare provider that's caring for COVID patients in an emergency, when their resources are stretched, that they not feel because the environment isn't perfect, that somehow they're liable when they’re doing their best," Mr. Brinkman said.