Orlando Medical Malpractice Lawyers Can Discover Hospital Privileges
As Orlando Medical Malpractice lawyers we relish a recent victory for all Florida medical malpractice plaintiffs. The Florida Supreme Court unanimously ruled that in response to discovery requests in medical malpractice cases, hospitals must turn over lists of hospital privileges granted to physicians by the facilities' credentials committees.
Handling medical malpractice cases throughout Florida, we have found that hospitals traditionally assert that revealing what privileges were granted to a physician at any given time would compromise the confidentiality of the physician peer-review process, which is protected by state law. The court’s decision respected the confidentiality of the peer-review committee process while still permitting medical malpractice plaintiffs to be able to obtain a list of privileges granted to a doctor through hospital records, which are not privileged under state law.
"We find nothing in the statutory scheme protecting the internal activities of a peer-review committee and its records that would exempt a hospital from disclosure of its decision to grant or deny certain practice privileges to a physician," the court said in Brandon Regional Hospital vs. Maria Murray et al. "Similarly, while the statutory scheme grants explicit protection to peer-review committee records, there is no such statutory protection extended to separate hospital records that may contain information provided by or partially based upon peer-review committee action."
In 2004, Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment requiring hospitals and other medical providers to provide public access to records of adverse medical incidents. The amendment made it substantially easier for patients to obtain documents that were a part of the peer-review process. Various rulings around the state have disagreed on whether the amendment applies retroactively and the state Supreme Court has agreed to decide the issue. But Amendment 7 did not figure into this ruling because it was not raised as an issue. And the Supreme Court's opinion made it clear that even without the amendment a list of privileges that are granted to a physician must be turned over by the hospital upon a discovery request.
Of course this decision gives teeth to those medical malpractice claims that a doctor was not properly credentialed to perform the procedure that causes injury or death. Now during discovery a proper request for a list of privileges that the defendant doctor was granted at a hospital will provide what can amount to crucial evidence. This Florida Supreme Court has made clear that the findings, recommendations, evaluations, opinions, or other actions of a peer-review committee are confidential, but a list of hospital privileges granted to a doctor is not.
