GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
SESSION 2005
HOUSE BILL 2195
RATIFIED BILL
AN ACT to provide liability protection for health care workers when responding to in-State incidents outside their hospital or normal jurisdiction as members of a State Medical Assistance Team.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1. G.S. 166A-14 reads as rewritten:
"§ 166A-14. Immunity and exemption.
(a) All functions hereunder and all other activities relating to emergency management are hereby declared to be governmental functions. Neither the State nor any political subdivision thereof, nor, except in cases of willful misconduct, gross negligence or bad faith, any emergency management worker complying with or reasonably attempting to comply with this Article or any order, rule or regulation promulgated pursuant to the provisions of this Article or pursuant to any ordinance relating to any emergency management measures enacted by any political subdivision of the State, shall be liable for the death of or injury to persons, or for damage to property as a result of any such activity.
(b) The rights of any
person to receive benefits to which he the person would otherwise
be entitled under this Article or under the Workers' Compensation Law or under
any pension law, norand the right of any such person to receive
any benefits or compensation under any act of Congress shall not be affected by
performance of emergency management functions.
(c) Any requirement for a
license to practice any professional, mechanical or other skill shall not apply
to any authorized emergency management worker who shall, in the course of
performing his the worker's duties as such, practice such
professional, mechanical or other skill during a state of disaster.
(d) As used in this
section, the term "emergency management worker" shall include any
full or part-time paid, volunteer or auxiliary employee of this State or other
states, territories, possessions or the District of Columbia, of the federal
government or any neighboring country or of any political subdivision thereof
or of any agency or organization performing emergency management services at
any place in this State, subject to the order or control of or pursuant to a
request of the State government or any political subdivision thereof. The term
"emergency management worker" under this section shall also include a
any health care worker performing health care services as a member of a
hospital-based or county-based State Medical Assistance Team designated by the
North Carolina Office of Emergency Medical Services and any person
performing emergency health care services under G.S. 90-12.2.
(e) Any emergency
management worker, as defined in this section, performing emergency management
services at any place in this State pursuant to agreements, compacts or
arrangements for mutual aid and assistance to which the State or a political
subdivision thereof is a party, shall possess the same powers, duties,
immunities and privileges he the person would ordinarily possess
if performing his duties in the State, or political subdivision thereof
in which normally employed or rendering services."
SECTION 2. This act is effective when it becomes law.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 30th day of June, 2006.
_____________________________________
Charlie S. Dannelly
Deputy President Pro Tempore of the Senate
_____________________________________
James B. Black
Speaker of the House of Representatives
_____________________________________
Michael F. Easley
Governor
Approved __________.m. this ______________ day of ___________________, 2006