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Senate approves optional Medical Reserve Corps enabling local health-department volunteer pools
Summary
Senate Bill 74 allows local health departments to form optional Medical Reserve Corps comprised of licensed or recently inactive medical professionals to assist during emergencies; sponsors preserved Good Samaritan protections for volunteers and clarified nonmonetary support is not compensation.
The Utah Senate on Feb. 3 approved Senate Bill 74 to enable local health departments to create an optional Medical Reserve Corps to supplement emergency medical response.
Senator Hilliard, sponsor of SB74, said the corps would allow health departments to call on licensed health professionals, including those with licenses inactive within 10 years, to respond in public-health emergencies. "This would allow these emergency situations to set up other health care providers who could provide those emergency types of service and take that pressure away [from hospitals]," Hilliard said.
The bill defines the role and scope of practice under local health directors and extends Good Samaritan protections in a targeted way, clarifying that modest nonmonetary items (for example, a shirt or a meal) would not be treated as compensation under the act. The floor record shows the bill passed third reading with 21 yes votes and no recorded nay votes; it will be enrolled for subsequent action.
