The public health emergency triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic has placed physician providers at increased medical liability risk. The COVID-19 outbreak necessitated an unprecedented health care system and physician response. Many gastroenterologists, like other physician specialists, have been required to provide care to patients without adequate medical and safety equipment and in hospital environments that lack necessary resources to ensure optimal patient and physician safety. Some gastroenterologists have been called to work in environments that are drastically different than their general practice or to provide care outside their normal scope of expertise.
With suspensions of elective procedures and clinic visits, medically necessary but non-emergent patient care has been interrupted and delayed, limiting the ability of gastroenterologists to evaluate patients and provide needed care in a timely fashion. Additionally, physicians may have no choice during the pandemic but to defer to an altered standard of care which is in the best interest of the patient and treating medical team. In such situations, physicians should not be at risk of medical liability.
Guidance and directives from local, state and federal governments are ever changing, contributing to the challenges of providing care during this time. For example, halting of colorectal cancer screening colonoscopy, which is considered by policymakers as an elective procedure, may result in delayed or missed cancer diagnoses.
The long-term effects of this crisis on the health care system and patient outcomes are not yet well understood, but the threat of costly litigation will likely remain for years to come.
Physicians continue to provide care in good faith during this unprecedented time. The ASGE supports actions to grant civil immunity to physicians for injury or death alleged to have been sustained as a result of an act or omission while providing medical services during the COVID-19 pandemic, with exceptions for gross negligence or willful misconduct.