MITIGATING LIABILITY MUCH AS POS

MITIGATING MEDICAL LIABILITY

CHOOSING A MEDICAL TEAM LEADER:

This is my least favorite subject but could possibly be the most important to ensure the fiscal survival of your church. Yes, first and formost issue if have an active shooter is to stop them as quickly as possible. Once the shooter(s) are neutralized, its safe for congregation, medical aid and emergency responders to move about safely rendering care to the wounded, especially those that may die if not tended to immediately becomes the most important issue at hand. Unfortunately how you handle neutralizing the shooter(s) then especially how you handle treating your victims may be the crux of whether or not your church survives any potential civil court litigation that follows. Developing an Emergency Trauma Team may actually be easier to do legally than your security team based on state and local laws. While having Security Volunteers cross trained in first aid is suggested we highly recommend that your Medical Team be a totally separate entity so everyone is sure of their primary role in an emergency.

Almost every church has at least one medical professional of some sort in their congregation. If your lucky you may have several or many mixed specialty medical professionals and trained lay persons in your church. First and very important job is choosing your team leader. You may have an emergency room trauma surgeon who makes it to every service unless called into work and has the largest heart in the congregation but may not be your best choice to recruit, organize, run and ensure team keeps training as often as possible and certifications current. A good cutter is usually a busy person and can be called into the hospital often during services, especially after a busy Saturday night of DUI car wrecks, bar fights and shootings in your town.

Look for someone with good organizational skills, great personality, ability to motivate and lead people no matter if they are a retired medical doctor, Monday though Thursday forty hour per week P.A. or nurse and as I have found experienced EMT's/paramedics with your local Fire Department. When that person is selected they will need the support of the entire church staff and congregation along with a team that respects them. Every church has people that took CPR several years ago that may volunteer their services to the team but is their certification current? May have retired military combat medics who are highly skilled but are no longer certified. These folks can still be used but suggest you get them some form of certification even if its just a current CPR certificate.

All of your active team members should have some form of active medical certification even if its just CPR or basic first aid course. I suggest that every church have an annual CPR class and encourage as many congregation members to participate. My last couple of CPR recertifications have been stunned by how much the course has changed. While I believe some of the older techniques no longer taught are still important if you render aid to a visitor who does not survive and has a non believer in their family that thinks they hit the Civil Court Lottery when they drag the church to court the more documents, especially current certifications able to provide your attorney will be an important part of your defense. Living in the land of litigation is a primary concern to how your medical team is organized and run. If your church has an attorney who can help we suggest you consult them in forming and running your team based on your states laws.

Select your medical team leader based on first their leadership skills and AVAILABLE TIME. To do such a job well will likely take a fair amount of time to get it launched, keep it going, organized, people on shift for every service and special events. Separating the jobs of security and medical needs into multiple teams is almost mandatory, the security teams job is to keep campus/building secure and if they are rendering medical aid then your open for a second assailant or random person with ideas to take advantage of a bad situation to make your issue worse. An assistant medical leader if your church has the resources is also a good idea as few people, if anyone can make every service. If your church has an active shooter event your trauma team working in most effective and legal manner will save lives while minimizing potential litigation. If asked, we will do our best to help advise and have volunteer lawyers who help as they can with questions. We will be adding/updating with more information on First Aid legal issues and certifications regularly. The below link is where the meat of this subject begins.

MANDATORY CHURCH MEDICAL CERTIFICATIONS