INDIANAPOLIS — As Indiana looks to retired physicians and medical students to help treat patients with COVID-19, there’s one pool of doctors and nurses they won’t be utilizing — health care professionals who have had their licenses suspended or revoked.
Per Executive Order 20-13, health care workers are not eligible if their license was previously revoked, suspended or relinquished.
Typically in Indiana, the state licensing boards take action against a doctor or nurse due to misconduct such as mistreating patients or stealing medications.
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Both Executive Order 20-05 (out-of-state providers) and Executive Order 20-13 (Retired Professionals) are explicit in their instructions that an individual who has had disciplinary action against them are not eligible for these temporary permits and are, therefore, not permitted to be on the registry, according to Eric Sears, Director of Communications and Legislative Affairs at the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency.
More than 430 people have been issued temporary permits to practice in Indiana, according to the state’s temporary registry.
They include retired doctors, out-of-state healthcare providers, and medical students and represent all different types of licenses including physician, nurses aide, psychologist, registered nurse, and occupational therapist.
The state’s Joint Information Center provided the following statement:
“More than one-third of the IU School of Medicine’s graduating class has graduated early and obtained their scope of practice under Governor Holcomb’s executive order. Every hospital that has requested one of these new doctors has been matched with one, and we are working to match additional volunteers with where they are needed.”
