Gov. Dan McKee has granted Rhode Island hospitals new liability protection during the COVID-19 pandemic.
An executive order McKee signed last week said licensed hospitals and their workers "are not liable for civil damages arising out of the level or manner of care received by a patient ... if such care has been affected by shortages in staffing and/or supplies."
Hospitals and other health-care facilities have lost thousands of workers since the start of the pandemic, leading to long emergency-room waits and fewer beds available in intensive-care units.
According to the executive order, hospital executives believe the threat of lawsuits is contributing to the staffing crisis and can "hinder staff recruitment, constrain medical professional judgment and limit the hospitals’ flexibility to adjust medical staff to patient ratios..."
McKee's predecessor, Gina Raimondo, first gave hospitals liability protection in an April 2020 executive order. That order was extended and then lapsed in August.
It is unclear whether any Rhode Island hospitals have been sued over the level of care provided since the pandemic began or since Raimondo's initial executive order expired.
Lifespan referred questions to the Rhode Island Hospital Association.
Care New England representatives said they do not comment on pending litigation.
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"Staffing at all of our hospitals is becoming more challenging by the day," Arnold Avila, Care New England senior vice president for human resources, wrote in an email. "Care New England, like all hospital systems across the nation, continually experiences some level of churn in staffing. Also similar to the rest of the nation at this time, CNE is experiencing the staffing shortage, which is touching so many parts of our hospital system."
The most acute staffing shortages have been for nurses and nursing assistants, many of whom left the profession or took lucrative out-of-state contract work as the pandemic dragged on.
Lifespan last week said its employee head count has fallen by nearly 2,000 workers since the start of the pandemic, to 15,000 employees, despite spending $15 million on raises and bonuses.
Care New England on Tuesday said it has 7,500 employees but would not provide a pre-COVID figure.
Care New England declined to say whether it has raised or will raise wages for nurses and other clinical staff.
RI's hospital staffing crisis:What's the solution?
Many of McKee's potential election rivals have called for the state to use some of its federal COVID relief money to pay for health-care worker recruitment and retention bonuses.
The United Nurses and Allied Professionals union is in favor of bonuses but not pushing for them exclusively.
"There is no doubt that Rhode Island's health-care system has reached full-blown crisis mode," Brad Dufault, spokesman for UNAP, wrote in an email. "While the UNAP would be supportive of certain actions the state could take, like using federal funds for retention bonuses for health-care workers, reopening field hospitals, re-routing ambulances for non-emergencies or bringing in the National Guard to assist, there is only one proven way to realistically solve the staffing crisis — and that's to get as many people vaccinated and boosted as possible."
In addition to providing liability protection, McKee's executive order tells hospitals to take whatever steps are necessary to increase capacity and consult with other health-care facilities to coordinate patient transfers.
It orders hospitals that offer specialty services, including Women & Infants, Bradley, Butler, Eleanor Slater and the Rehabilitation Hospital of Rhode Island to "accept transfers of patients, in their respective specialty service areas, from any other licensed Rhode Island hospital to support the expansion of medical/surgical and critical care capacity."
The order notes that it does not provide immunity for acts of negligence of non-hospital staff or "willful misconduct, gross negligence, or bad faith."
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Cases in R.I.: 223,985 (6,757 reported since Thursday)
Negative tests in R.I.: 6,291,900 (60,503 reported since Thursday; 10.0% positive rate)
R.I. COVID-related deaths: 3,046 (28 reported since Thursday)
Rhode Islanders hospitalized with COVID: 295 (44 in intensive care)
Fully vaccinated in R.I.: 799,863 (892,868 at least partially vaccinated)
Cases in Mass.: 1,069,310
Mass. COVID-related deaths: 20,075
Cases in U.S.: 53,093,904
U.S. COVID-related deaths: 820,419