Credentialing records open in liability cases -- Florida court

Another case pending before the state Supreme Court could define further which hospital records fall outside the peer review privilege.

By Amy Lynn Sorrel, AMNews staff. June 11, 2007.

Whether a recent Florida Supreme Court ruling signals a chipping away of peer review protections remains to be seen, some lawyers say.

The state's high court in May found that hospital lists delineating physician privileges are fair game in medical liability lawsuits and that peer review statutes do not prevent plaintiffs from accessing them.

The patient in the underlying case had complications during an obstetric procedure and sued the doctor for negligence. She alleged that the hospital did not properly credential the physician who performed the surgery.

The doctor and hospital argued that revealing a hospital's decision about physician privileges would compromise the confidentiality of the peer review process. Ultimately, they said, it could hurt the quality of care.

In a unanimous court decision, justices reaffirmed that existing peer review statutes protect internal documents generated within confidential peer review proceedings from discovery in lawsuits. But the court found hospital credentialing lists to be a separate hospital record and said that nothing in peer review laws shield hospital records that might contain information provided by, or partially based upon, peer review committee actions.

"The availability of such information would appear fundamental and essential to any patient's decision to consent to a medical procedure to be performed by a physician in the hospital," states the opinion in Brandon Regional Hospital v. Maria Murray.