Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

West Bank Town Becomes ‘Big Prison’ as Israel Fences It In

3 days ago

Trump Says He’s Willing to Let Migrant Farm Laborers Stay in US

3 days ago

US Electric Vehicle Tax Breaks Will Expire on Sept. 30

4 days ago

Eyeing Arctic Dominance, Trump Bill Earmarks $8.6 Billion for US Coast Guard Icebreakers

4 days ago

Trump’s Sweeping Tax-Cut and Spending Bill Wins Congressional Approval

4 days ago

Americans Celebrate Their Independence With Record-Breaking Travel Numbers

4 days ago

US Supreme Court to Decide Legality of Transgender School Sports Bans

4 days ago

Nvidia Set to Become the World’s Most Valuable Company in History

4 days ago

Poll: 41% in US ‘Extremely Proud’ to Be American, Near Historic Low

4 days ago
As Thousands Join, Few Rules for California Health Corps
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 5 years ago on
April 6, 2020

Share

SACRAMENTo — As tens of thousands of retired health care workers and medical and nursing students sign up for the newly established California Health Corps, almost nothing is known about how it will operate, how much it will cost and whether taxpayers will be liable for any malpractice.

Gov. Gavin Newsom established the corps to staff the 66,000 additional hospital rooms he said could be needed when the coronavirus outbreak peaks in California in mid-May. Within three days sign-ups topped 70,000, more than twice the estimated pool of people in the state who retired within the last five years and have active health care profession licenses.

Gov. Gavin Newsom established the corps to staff the 66,000 additional hospital rooms he said could be needed when the coronavirus outbreak peaks in California in mid-May. Within three days sign-ups topped 70,000, more than twice the estimated pool of people in the state who retired within the last five years and have active health care profession licenses.

And state officials couldn’t even estimate how many more nursing and medical students have volunteered.

Now the state’s task is to smoothly integrate that volunteer army into the existing health care system and the stopgap medical facilities springing up in sports arenas, fairgrounds and other locations.

So far, state officials have been unable to answer basic questions about the program’s operations and backtracked in their response to how the state will protect itself from legal liability. While participants will be paid and provided with malpractice insurance, the California Emergency Medical Services Authority said the state “has elected to be self-insured for liability exposures” and “malpractice insurance will not need to be procured.”

That’s another way of saying taxpayers could be on the hook if an inexperienced or retired medical worker does something wrong, although the volunteers will have limited immunity from liability because they are considered disaster service workers under state law.

Representatives Had Seen No Written Policies or Directives for the Corps

State officials haven’t said how much volunteers will be paid, how quickly they will be assigned or for how long.

Rodger Butler of the California Health and Human Services Agency couldn’t say if there is a budget, but said the program will be funded through California’s emergency operations account, with the expectation of eventual reimbursement from the federal government.

Representatives for nursing and hospital associations and the union representing 97,000 hospital workers said they had seen no written policies or directives for the corps.

“It’s one thing to have a stack of applications, it’s another thing to actually operationalize this,” California Nurses Association government relations director Stephanie Roberson said.

While Newsom and health officials say there is no time to waste, Roberson said recruiting the volunteer doctors, nurses, pharmacists, respiratory therapists, emergency medical technicians and others may be premature if current workers can be moved into the most vital areas. And she worries about bringing in retired workers without knowing “how fresh their skills may or may not be.”

Health policy professor Janet Coffman compared it to military operation with the added but surmountable challenge of using troops who may start out rusty or untrained.

The first wave of reserves is likely to be those active health care workers who have been displaced because less serious medical care has been delayed indefinitely, said Coffman, part of the Healthforce Center at the University of California, San Francisco, considered the state’s top university based resource on the healthcare workforce. They can be rapidly moved into helping with more dire needs.

Photo of Gov. Gavin Newsom at Bloom Energy
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, second from right, is given a tour of the Bloom Energy Sunnyvale, Calif., campus Saturday, March 28, 2020. Bloom Energy is a fuel cell generator company that has switched over to refurbishing ventilators as an increasing number of patients experience respiratory issues as a result of COVID-19. (Beth LaBerge/KQED via AP, Pool)

California Envisions a Much More Hands-On Role

For instance, California has about 110,000 licensed vocational nurses, but about 60,000 are not in acute care facilities, said David Miller, research director for SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has similarly pleaded for help from medical retirees and professionals across the nation to help in the New York City area that has become the U.S. center of the pandemic.

However, “they’re not digging very deep at all into the volunteers, and they have very specific roles for them” triaging incoming patients or swabbing them to test for the coronavirus, said Sean Clarke, executive vice dean and professor at New York University’s Rory Meyers College of Nursing.

California envisions a much more hands-on role.

“These initial recruits will be used to staff California’s surge capacity beds outside of the existing system,” Kate Folmar of the California Health and Human Services Agency said in an email. They’ll be treating less serious patients, leaving established hospitals and experienced staff to treat those who need critical care.

The volunteers are expected to work at places like the San Mateo County Event Center south of San Francisco, where 250 narrow beds have been set up 6 feet (1.8 meters) apart — the minimum health officials say is needed to avoid spreading the virus through a sneeze or cough.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.

[covid-19-tracker]

California May Have Little Choice but to Throw as Many Health Care Workers as Possible Into the Battle

Dr. Cyrus Shahpar led the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Global Rapid Response Team for two years after it was created in 2015, and now directs the Prevent Epidemics Team for the global public health initiative Resolve to Save Lives.

“To be able to mobilize a workforce like that is a massive challenge. We do this kind of surge response to natural disasters all the time. … It is a lot of work, it is a lot of training, but it can be done.” Dr. Cyrus Shahpar

He said keys to the success of the corps are training to make sure thousands of volunteers of varying backgrounds and experience are on the same page, and having enough personal safety equipment and procedures to prevent volunteers from becoming sick or spreading the virus themselves.

“To be able to mobilize a workforce like that is a massive challenge,” Shahpar said. “We do this kind of surge response to natural disasters all the time. … It is a lot of work, it is a lot of training, but it can be done.”

Miller said SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West and many others are working quickly to put basic classes online in things like how to work in an acute care setting, how to operate a ventilator, and safely putting on and removing personal protective equipment. His union plans a four-hour training module.

Clarke said California, and other states, may soon have little choice but to throw as many health care workers as possible into the battle, ready or not.

“If the crisis worsens in the way we think it is, it will have to be worked out on the fly,” he said. “We may just be in the place where we’re trying to save as many lives as possible.”

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

TikTok Building New Version of App Ahead of Expected US Sale, the Information Reports

DON'T MISS

Hamas Government Office Rejects US Accusation of Involvement in Gaza Aid Site Attack

DON'T MISS

Death Toll From Texas Floods Reaches 78, Trump Plans Visit

DON'T MISS

Trump Calls Musk’s Formation of New Party “Ridiculous” and Confusing

DON'T MISS

Fresno DUI Driver Slams Into CHP Motorcycle, Tow Truck on Highway 99

DON'T MISS

Russia Downs 120 Ukrainian Drones Overnight, Defense Ministry Says

DON'T MISS

Israel Sends Delegation to Qatar for Gaza Talks Ahead of Netanyahu Trip to US

DON'T MISS

San Luis Obispo’s Madre Fire Grows to Nearly 80,000 Acres, 30% Contained

DON'T MISS

Musk Announces Forming of ‘America Party’ in Further Break From Trump

DON'T MISS

Death Toll From Texas Floods Reaches 59, Including 21 Children

UP NEXT

San Luis Obispo’s Madre Fire Grows to Nearly 80,000 Acres, 30% Contained

UP NEXT

Death Toll From Texas Floods Reaches 59, Including 21 Children

UP NEXT

Madre Fire Spurs Evacuations Across 3 Counties, Grows to More Than 70,000 Acres

UP NEXT

Fresno Crash Involving Unlicensed Teen Driver Sends Woman to Hospital

UP NEXT

Madre Fire Burns More Than 52,000 Acres in San Luis Obispo County

UP NEXT

Americans Celebrate Their Independence With Record-Breaking Travel Numbers

UP NEXT

San Luis Obispo’s Madre Fire Grows to 35,000 Acres, More Evacuations Ordered

UP NEXT

Poll: 41% in US ‘Extremely Proud’ to Be American, Near Historic Low

UP NEXT

Poorest Americans Dealt Biggest Blow Under Senate Republican Tax Package

UP NEXT

CHP Officer Dies in Line of Duty After Medical Emergency While on Patrol

Trump Calls Musk’s Formation of New Party “Ridiculous” and Confusing

15 hours ago

Fresno DUI Driver Slams Into CHP Motorcycle, Tow Truck on Highway 99

22 hours ago

Russia Downs 120 Ukrainian Drones Overnight, Defense Ministry Says

22 hours ago

Israel Sends Delegation to Qatar for Gaza Talks Ahead of Netanyahu Trip to US

22 hours ago

San Luis Obispo’s Madre Fire Grows to Nearly 80,000 Acres, 30% Contained

22 hours ago

Musk Announces Forming of ‘America Party’ in Further Break From Trump

22 hours ago

Death Toll From Texas Floods Reaches 59, Including 21 Children

22 hours ago

California’s Politics Drifts Right While New York’s Leans Left

23 hours ago

How Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Will Make China Great Again

2 days ago

What’s Caitlin Clark Worth to the WNBA? A Lot More Than Her $78,066 Salary.

2 days ago

TikTok Building New Version of App Ahead of Expected US Sale, the Information Reports

TikTok is building a new version of its app for users in the United States ahead of a planned sale of the app to a group of investors, The I...

15 hours ago

A logo is displayed over a door at the U.S. headquarters of the social media company TikTok in Culver City, California, U.S. January 17, 2025. (Reuters File)
15 hours ago

TikTok Building New Version of App Ahead of Expected US Sale, the Information Reports

Boxes of aid are stacked as Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said it has commenced operations to begin distribution of aid, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, May 26, 2025. (Reuters File)
15 hours ago

Hamas Government Office Rejects US Accusation of Involvement in Gaza Aid Site Attack

A volunteer searches for flood victims after deadly flooding in Kerr County, Texas, U.S., July 6, 2025. REUTERS/Sergio Flores
15 hours ago

Death Toll From Texas Floods Reaches 78, Trump Plans Visit

Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk listens as US President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with House Republicans at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Washington, DC, U.S. on November 13, 2024. (Reuters File)
15 hours ago

Trump Calls Musk’s Formation of New Party “Ridiculous” and Confusing

A 22-year-old suspected DUI driver crashed into a parked CHP motorcycle and tow truck on Highway 99 near Fresno, narrowly missing an officer and bystanders, CHP said Saturday, July 5, 2025. (CHP)
22 hours ago

Fresno DUI Driver Slams Into CHP Motorcycle, Tow Truck on Highway 99

A service member of a drone unit of the 24th Separate Mechanized Brigade named after King Danylo of the Ukrainian Armed Forces controls a heavy combat drone while it flies over positions of Russian troops, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk Region, Ukraine June 12, 2025. (Reuters File)
22 hours ago

Russia Downs 120 Ukrainian Drones Overnight, Defense Ministry Says

An Israeli tank maneuvers in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, July 6, 2025. (Reuters/Amir Cohen)
22 hours ago

Israel Sends Delegation to Qatar for Gaza Talks Ahead of Netanyahu Trip to US

The Madre Fire near New Cuyama has burned nearly 80,000 acres as of Sunday, July 6, 2025, morning, prompting widespread evacuation orders and warnings across three counties. (CalFire)
22 hours ago

San Luis Obispo’s Madre Fire Grows to Nearly 80,000 Acres, 30% Contained

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend