Retired Doctors To Help During Coronavirus Surge

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INDIANAPOLIS — The state is expecting a surge of coronavirus patients in the coming weeks.

In preparation for it, Gov. Eric Holcomb has rolled out an executive order allowing recently retired doctors or other medical professionals to get back in the game to make sure hospitals have enough staff to treat the growing number of patients.

Dr. Chuck Dietzen, who retired from practicing medicine full-time at Riley Children’s Health in 2018, is one of those doctors answering the governor’s call for help.

Dr. Chuck Dietzen

“They asked ‘what patient population are you most comfortable with’, which of course is children, having been a PEDs rehab doctor,” Dietzen told WISH-TV. “Basically they ask about everything, ‘can you draw blood, can you start IVs, would you work outside your normal field,’ which of course I’m comfortable with all of that.”

The governor’s order only allows doctors who have been retired five-years or less to return to help with caseloads at hospitals all over the state. It also allows for doctors who recently surrendered their license to practice again as well as doctors who are from another state to practice in Indiana.

The order grants these doctors and nurses a 90-day license that can be renewed for 30 days or longer depending on how long they are needed. Those who had their license taken away from them will not be accepted.

Dietzen is familiar with the order since he actually worked with state lawmakers in 2015 to create the Indiana’s Medical Health Shield Act, which is the law on the Indiana Code that gives the governor the power to grant these limited licenses in situations such as this.