JOPLIN, Mo. —
Communication was problematic, and Alan Buchele found himself growing frustrated with a few on duty who found it difficult to break out of the medical profession’s standard mode of having everything authorized.
“We’re off the map of authorization,” he shouted at them.
That was the scene the Joplin trauma surgeon described to the Globe. He was working triage following the massive tornado on May 22, 2011.
It was a night when rules and regulations had to be broken.
It also was a night that proves to us that Missouri law should be changed to allow out-of-state doctors and nurses to treat injured people in an emergency without fear of liability,
More than a year after the devastating tornado, the Interim Commission on Disaster Preparedness, Response and Recovery met Tuesday in Joplin to hear testimony about response to Joplin’s 2011 tornado.
Keith Stammer, emergency management director for Joplin and Jasper County, and Dwight Douglas, general counsel for Freeman Health System, both said the change would cut red tape that affects medical care in a disaster or emergency, particularly in areas that are close to other state borders.
The Legislature should adopt changes to the state’s “Good Samaritan” law that would allow doctors and nurses who are licensed in other states to treat people in Missouri during an emergency with immunity from malpractice lawsuits.
There were 135 doctors from Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas who came to Joplin the night of the tornado or the day after to help. We don’t think fear of lawsuits kept any of them away.
But why ask health professionals to take those risks when a change to current law could waive required state certification for 30 or 60 days after a disaster or emergency?
It was a change discussed in the Missouri Legislature in 2012. Let’s make it happen in 2013.
Opinion
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Discussion
Our View: Change law, cut red tape
- Opinion
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Our View: ‘Why?’ has no answer
Just hours before, there was breakfast and laughter. There were pictures on the walls and memories in every room.
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Our View: Absent from House
We can’t figure out why two Missouri legislators think they should be elected to the U.S. House when it appears they can’t seem to show up to take care of business in the Missouri House.
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Your View: Terrorism is terrorism
In the May 13 issue of The Joplin Globe there was an Associated Press article concerning the New Orleans shooting.
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Your View: Should we be outraged?
Were there effusive apologies following the lockdown of Boston as most of the continent indulged vicariously in the ongoing manhunt?
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Your View: Terrible injustice
I see this Jasper County nuisance law as a terrible injustice on the rights of the residents of Jasper County.
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Other Views: Conflicts in SEC
Money talks. In the continuing dispute over the all-too-cozy relationship between the people who create and sell financial products and the people who rate their risk, the money says: Shut up and let us do what we want.
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Phill Brooks, columnist: Missouri Senate did what Founding Fathers had in mind
George Washington once described the Senate as being like a saucer in which you pour coffee or tea.
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Our View: Fixing failure
Some 1,200 injured workers will finally get the payments they are owed. In its final week in session, Missouri’s General Assembly, through bipartisan efforts, passed a solution to address the insolvency of the state’s Second Injury Fund.
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Herb B. Kuhn, guest columnist: Delaying Medicaid reform could hurt rural Missouri
The Missouri Legislature missed a rare opportunity in the just-ended session to transform Medicaid and make a real difference in the lives and health of hundreds of thousands of our neighbors. Rural Missouri has the most to lose from the legislature’s failure to act.
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Kevin Wilson, guest columnist: When fear wins out, so do the terrorists
I’m going to make a bold statement that’s sure to draw a lot of comments, but hear me out before reaching for the keyboard to type a rebuttal.
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