Hospital can be sued for credentialing doctor with questionable qualifications, Minnesota high court rules

Some experts worry that the ruling will lead to physicians becoming reluctant to get involved in the peer review process.

By Amy Lynn Sorrel, AMNews staff. Oct. 15, 2007.

Physicians fear that a recent Minnesota Supreme Court decision could compromise statutory peer review protections and taint physicians in medical liability cases that are tied to negligent credentialing claims.

For the first time, the high court recognized that patients can sue hospitals for allegedly granting privileges to doctors with questionable credentials. The unanimous decision adds Minnesota to a list of at least 25 other states that recognize negligent credentialing claims.

In their opinion, justices looked to some of those states when they concluded that hospital peer review committees have a duty to protect patients when they make privileging decisions. Existing peer review confidentiality measures can continue to protect those discussions, but nothing in the law prevents patients from using other outside information to make their cases, the court said. Attorneys say that could mean anything from prior lawsuits and state disciplinary records to divorce papers.

"Although the confidentiality provisions of [the peer review statute] present some obstacles in both proving and defending a claim of negligent credentialing, they do not preclude such a claim," the Aug. 16 opinion in Larson v. Wasemiller states.

Meanwhile, doctors worry that such claims will chip away at peer review confidentiality because hospitals will find it difficult to fight back without disclosing the details that go into credentialing decisions.

In that case, "physicians will be reluctant to get involved in peer review, and it really relies on that voluntary participation" for quality-of-care improvement, said Mark R. Whitmore, legal counsel for the Minnesota Medical Assn. The state medical society filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case along with the American Medical Association/State Medical Societies Litigation Center and the Minnesota Hospital Assn.