Healthcare Event Planning: Evaluating Your Liability with Waivers

Imagine all your staff, volunteers, and guests gathering for a spectacular evening to celebrate your organization’s hard work and dedication. The night is inspiring and fun, with people feeling more motivated than ever to drive their healthcare mission! 

But, for all the meticulous planning your organization puts into planning events—including the venue, catering, decor, marketing, and more—there are still some things out of your control. 

Waivers can help protect your organization in the event of accidents or mishaps. While creating waivers and getting attendees to sign them can seem like another step in the long and arduous planning process, doing so reduces your overall stress and can be done simply using event management software. 

Read on to learn more about protecting your healthcare organization from liability using online waivers!

Why are Waivers Important for Healthcare Events? 

Waivers can help protect your organization from circumstances beyond your control. They can also decrease the risk of a costly lawsuit if something unfortunate were to happen at one of your events. 

Perhaps someone slips on a drink spilled on the floor. Or one of your guests falls down the stairs at the venue. Maybe a blackout has guests asking for a refund. These scenarios may sound far-fetched, but accidents do happen, especially when you’re not planning for them. 

Waivers can also help you keep a record of everyone who attended your event, including their consent to participate despite clearly outlined risks. 

You should always consult with your lawyer or legal advisor to create an event waiver for the best protection—for your organization and your guests. 

How Can Online Waivers Help My Healthcare Organization Avoid Liability? 

Waivers can feel overwhelmed when implementing, storing, and organizing. 

Fortunately, event management software like Attendease can streamline the entire process. It’s easy to create, upload, and send waivers to your entire guest list. You can also provide helpful reminders for attendees to sign waivers leading up to the event. 

Here are some of the main ways that waivers contribute to safer healthcare events, whether virtual or in-person. 

Provide Flexibility

Event management platforms like Attendease offer customizable waiver templates, which you can easily update with your branding. It’s also simple to make edits based on the advice you receive from legal counsel. You can also upload premade waivers to get started.

Online waivers mean it’s easier to change and update waivers for each of your healthcare organization’s events. You can create custom forms to fit any event, including: 

• Large multi-day conferences and seminars
• Team-building activities, including sports tournaments and other social events 
• Webinars and virtual training sessions
• Auctions and charity fundraisers

The list goes on. 

Digital waivers make it possible for guests to sign a variety of formats and have all signed copies stored in one secure, central location. Plus, you won’t have to worry about staffing a waiver table, including scanning and organizing paper copies at your event. 

Going paperless also removes room for human error or the need for storage space. Plus, no one misses out on the event because there aren’t enough paper copies.  

If your event or activity requires a safety demonstration, you can also embed a training video into your waiver using event software for healthcare. This way all guests understand their responsibilities and risks going into the event, freeing themselves up to enjoy the event safely. 

Securing Attendee Signatures 

Event management software enables your attendees to sign your waiver via digital signature. These tools also securely store this information for record keeping. 

Customize your waivers to ensure that the required sections are completed by marking them with an asterisk. This will help ensure that all areas you need guests to read or sign are completed prior to the event. 

For even more security, you can incorporate e-photo capture into your waivers so you’ll have an image of guests as they sign the waiver. Having a photo of guests signing waivers can serve as a double protection against liability as you have two ways to verify their identity. 

Inform Event Attendees

Waivers can also inform potential guests about participation, activities, or overall expectations for an event. 

By highlighting event activities and the risks they include, you help guests determine if attending the event is the right choice for them (also known as informed consent). 

Plus, providing proper disclosure to attendees ahead of time is another way to protect your healthcare organization from liability. 

Waivers can include descriptions of important details like: 

• Potential food allergens 
• Extensive walking, standing, running, etc. 
• Sports or physical contact activities
• Sensitive topics to be discussed, such as emotional triggers, etc. 

As always, you should consult with your legal counsel to decide which activities to include in your event waivers to complete your liability coverage. 

Encourages Event Registration

Online event waivers make your event more accessible. Attendees can use their own computer-assistive technology or work with a supporter to review the waiver. 

You can also share your event waiver through several channels to ensure all participants can sign them. 

Here are a few examples: 

• Embed on your event’s webpage. Create a button on your event’s landing page to guide potential attendees to the waiver.  

• Include a link during registration. Include a link to your waiver within your registration form if you want to be sure all your participants sign prior to submitting their registration. 

• Create a QR code. Use QR codes in your marketing materials like email newsletters, social media posts, or a day-of poster to give individuals a mobile-friendly option. 

• Set up a waiver kiosk. Include some kiosks at your event to ensure guests who haven’t yet completed the waiver can still complete it and enter the event having signed.  

Providing guests with numerous opportunities to complete the waiver will ensure more people actually sign it, in turn increasing your liability coverage.

Streamline Healthcare Event Planning with Attendease

Waivers are essential to any event your healthcare organization hosts. Without waivers, your organization could be held liable for circumstances beyond your control. Waivers can help reduce this risk.

Event software for healthcare is well worth the investment when it comes to protecting your events. Again, be sure to consult with your lawyer or legal counsel when creating your waivers to ensure you’ve covered all your bases. And if you’re looking for the best event management software on the market, look no further than Tripleseat Planner. It’s never been easier to customize forms and communicate with attendees—before, during, and after each event. Book a demo today!