Fran Ciardullo, special counsel, had her “Hospital Quality Assurance Meetings: Erosion of the Protections” article published in the April 2022 issue of the New York Beat, the monthly enewsletter from the New York Medical Group Management Association (NYMGMA). Fran’s article explores how, throughout the course of hospital peer review and quality assurance programs, the records and proceedings of the quality assurance process, including statements at meetings related to peer review, are protected from disclosure. However, these protections are eliminated if a physician’s case and care are being reviewed, and a recent New York State case narrowed the protection covering non-physician and non-hospital attendees at quality assurance meetings.
“In Siegel v. Snyder, a physician’s treatment of a brain trauma patient who died of his injuries was reviewed by the hospital quality assurance and medical malpractice prevention committee. The physician and the hospital were later sued for malpractice, and the plaintiff sought the records of the committee meeting. The minutes contained statements attributed to ‘the committee’ and not any particular attendee at the meeting. In opposing the plaintiff’s request, the defendants argued that the meeting minutes were privileged because it could not be shown that the statements were made by the defendant physician and, therefore, did not fall within the exception to the privilege. The court disagreed and found that it was the defendants’ burden to demonstrate that the statements were not made by the defendant physician and, thus, were entitled to protection. Because the minutes failed to properly identify the speaker, the court concluded that the defendant failed to meet this burden, and, therefore, the court allowed disclosure of the minutes, save only for those portions that identified a named speaker.”
Click here to read the full article.