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The Commission on Uniform State Laws has approved the Uniform Volunteer Emergency Health Practitioners Act. This “Uniform Act” – which becomes “law” in a state only when adopted by state legislatures – includes alternate provisions on liability with varying protection. The model act's text and the current status of efforts to adopt are Volunteer Health Practitioners, at http://www.uniformlaws.org/Act.aspx?title=Emergency (Accessed June 7, 2013).Google Scholar

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A “tabletop” is so named because it does not try to recreate an emergency event by simulating the event and actually deploying response resources (ambulances, helicopters, doctors, nurses, and so forth); rather, a scenario is presented to participants representing their organizations. These participants – perhaps while sitting around a table – think through and describe how they would respond to an event and interact with other organizations. One such tabletop was conducted by the University of the District of Columbia's National Legal Preparedness Program in 2009; the report of this effort is “The Law and Catastrophic Disasters, Legal Issues in the Aftermath” by Ernest B. Abbott and Otto J. Hetzel. One segment of this Exercise focused on Public Health and Medical Care.Google Scholar