Oregon Good Samaritan Act
Oregon Revised Statue (ORS) 30.800; enacted 1985
Liability
for emergency medical assistance by medically trained persons.
1)
As used in this section:
a)
"Emergency medical assistance" means:
A)
Medical or dental care not provided in a place where emergency medical or
dental care is regularly available, including but not limited to a hospital,
industrial first-aid station or a physician's or dentist's office, given
voluntarily and without the expectation of compensation to an injured person
who is in need of immediate medical or dental care and under emergency
circumstances that suggest that the giving of assistance is the only
alternative to death or serious physical aftereffects; or
B)
Medical care provided voluntarily in good faith and without expectation of
compensation by a physician licensed by the Board of Medical Examiners for the
State of Oregon in the physician's professional capacity as a team physician at
a public or private school or college athletic event or as a volunteer
physician at other athletic events.
b)
"Medically trained person" means:
A) A
person licensed under any law of a state or of the United States to practice
medicine and surgery, dentistry or dental surgery, professional nursing,
osteopathy, naturopathy or chiropractic;
B) A
person who has completed successfully, within three years prior to the date on
which emergency medical assistance is rendered by the person, a state or
federal-sponsored training program for persons engaging in the rendering of
emergency medical assistance or who has completed successfully the aforesaid
training program and, within three years prior to the date on which emergency
medical assistance is rendered by the person, regularly has engaged in the
rendering of emergency medical assistance, and who possesses proof of the
successful completion of such a training program;
C) A
person who has completed, within three years prior to the date on which
emergency medical assistance is rendered by the person, a course sponsored or
approved by the American Red Cross, the federal Mine Safety and Health
Administration, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration or the Oregon
Accident Prevention Division of the Workers' Compensation Department, is
qualified to render emergency first-aid and possesses proof of the completion
of such first-aid training;
D) A
person who, within three years prior to the date on which emergency medical
assistance is rendered by the person, has been trained or who has been trained,
and within three years prior to the date on which emergency medical assistance
is rendered by the person, has served as a medical assistant or medical corpman
in the Armed Services of the United States;
E) A
person who possesses an emergency medical technician I certificate issued
pursuant to ORS823.150 or and emergency medical technician II, III, or IV
certificate issued pursuant to ORS677.610 to 677.700; or
F) A
person who has completed, within one year prior to the date the emergency
cardiopulmonary resuscitation is rendered by the person, a course sponsored by
the American Red Cross or the American Heart Association in emergency
cardiopulmonary resuscitation , or a course in emergency cardiopulmonary
resuscitation provided by an agency or organization that meets the current
criteria and standards of emergency cardiopulmonary resuscitation training as
established by the American Heart Association and is qualified to render
cardiopulmonary resuscitation and who possesses proof of the completion of such
a training program.
2)
No person may maintain an action for damages for injury, death or loss that
results from acts or omissions of the medically trained person while rendering
emergency medical assistance unless it is alleged and proved by the complaining
party that the acts or omissions violate the standards of reasonable care under
the circumstances in which the emergency medical assistance was rendered, if
the action is against:
a) A
medically trained person; or
b) A
governmental agency or other entity which employs, trains, supervises or
sponsors the medically trained person.
3)
The giving of emergency medical assistance by a medically trained person does
not, of itself, establish the relationship of physician and patient, dentist
and patient or nurse and patient between the medically trained person giving
the assistance and the person receiving the assistance insofar as the
relationship carries with it a duty of a physician, dentist or nurse to provide
or arrange for further medical care for the injured person after the giving of
emergency medical assistance.
[1967 c.266 $$1, 2; 1973 c.635 $1; 1979 c576 $1; 1979
c.731 $1; 1983 c.779 $1; 1985 c.428 $1]