Who Is Liable for Disaster Planning?

摘要

The Hurricane Katrina disaster in 2005 brought to light numerous issues of liability for hospitals, nursing homes, health care professionals, and volunteers. Two of the most well publicized health care cases were the alleged killings by physicians at Tenet's Memorial Hospital and the decision not to evacuate residents at St. Rita's nursing home in St. Bernard Parish.A less publicized case arose out of a local hospital's failure to adequately prepare for and respond to the hurricane. In LaCoste v. Pendleton Methodist Hospital, a complete loss of power and a botched evacuation resulted in the death of a patient, Mrs, LaCoste, when her life support system lost power and she was left at the hospital.1 The issue raised in the case was whether the claim sounded in medical malpractice, rather than in tort.