Medical staff's standing to sue at issue

Physicians say the New Hampshire Supreme Court must recognize the right so medical staffs can fulfill their legal and ethical duty to maintain quality care in hospitals.

By Tanya Albert, AMNews staff. March 18, 2002.

The New Hampshire Supreme Court is taking up a question that could affect how physicians in that state challenge hospital board decisions: Do medical staffs have legal standing to sue their hospitals?

The case that presented this issue arose after the board of trustees at Exeter Hospital in Exeter, N.H., dismissed the elected medical staff president and told him he wasn't allowed to talk to the staff about the board's decision.(See cor

If that opinion stands, the court would leave doctors with no legal recourse against hospitals, physician advocates said.

"Without standing, physicians wouldn't be able to complain [to the court] about infringements on their duty to fulfill certain things the state requires them to in a hospital setting," said Michel A. LaFond, one of the Concord, N.H., attorneys represen

Physicians will still have some recourse if they lose their argument in Exeter Hospital Medical Staff et al v. Board of Trustees of Exeter Health Resources Inc. They could turn to the state Legislature to pass laws to help them carry out their o [...]