In the closing days of its November term, the Illinois Supreme Court agreed to decide an issue of potential importance to the medical malpractice bar: what kinds of documents are privileged from disclosure in a negligent credentialing claim in a medical malpractice case? The question arises in a decision from the Fifth District, Klaine v. Southern Illinois Hospital Services.
The plaintiffs sued the defendant doctor for medical malpractice. They added a claim against the defendant hospital, alleging that it was negligent in agreeing to give the doctor hospital credentials. The plaintiff demanded that the hospital produce various applications for staff privileges and attached documents in discovery. When the defendants refused, the plaintiffs filed a motion to compel. The Circuit Court subsequently examined the documents in camera. The court subsequently ruled that all of the documents were privileged aside from three specific groups, designed Group Exhibits B, F and J. In order to facilitate an immediate appeal under Supreme Court Rule 304(b), the defendants declined to comply with the court’s order and requested entry of a “friendly contempt.” The circuit court agreed and entered the contempt, fining the defendant $1.
The Fifth District affirmed the Circuit Court’s order in most respects. Group Exhibit F was a set of three applications for staff privileges, dated in 2009, 2010 and 2011. The Appellate Court rejected defendant’s claim that the 2011 application was irrelevant, since it dated after the allegedly negligent treatment of the plaintiff. The defendant argued that all three applications were privileged pursuant to the Data Collection Act, 410 ILCS 517/15(h), which prohibits “[a]ny redisclosure of credentials data contrary to this Section.” Citing the Medical Studies Act, the court held that when the legislature wishes to establish a new discovery privilege, it does not explicitly. The court declined to follow the First District’s decision in TTX Co. v. Whitley, where the Court held that a similar bar on production in the Illinois Income Tax Act privileged certain documents from discovery because it didn’t contain an exception for disclosure in judicial proceedings.
In the alternative, the defendant argued that even if Group Exhibit F wasn’t fully privileged, all references to findings in a report prepared about the defendant doctor by a medical consulting company must be redacted pursuant to the Medical Studies Act, 735 ILCS 5/8-2102. The consultants were retained by the hospital to conduct external peer reviews of its physicians. The court agreed that the data was privileged as being directly related to the hospital’s internal quality control process.
Next, the defendant argued that certain data contained in the defendant doctor’s applications for staff privileges was privileged pursuant to the Health Care Quality Improvement Act, 42 USC § 1137. The Act creates the NPDB, to which medical malpractice insurance carriers, boards of medical examiners and health care entities are required to report information regarding claims, disciplinary actions and other adverse information regarding a healthcare professional. The Act includes a sweeping confidentiality provision, but also provides that nothing in the Act should be construed as preventing disclosure by any person authorized under State law to do so (42 USC § 1137(b).] The Court held that this language eliminated any privilege, and the defendant was required to produce the information.
Next, the defendant argued that various pieces of information in the files relating to the treatment of other patients was non-discoverable pursuant to HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (42 USC § 1320(d).) The Court disagreed on two grounds: first, much of the information did not involve individually identifiable health information, and second, the Act contained explicit provisions regarding disclosure in judicial proceedings. The Court also rejected the defendant’s argument that the defendant doctor’s assessment of his own physical condition was subject to the physician-patient privilege, holding that no independent physician’s assessment was involved.
Finally, the defendant argued that documents in Group Exhibit F containing a list of procedures performed by the defendant doctor over a four year period were privileged pursuant to the Medical Studies Act, 735 ILCS 5/8-2102. The Court acknowledged that any information generated by a hospital committee involved in internal quality control during the process of peer review would be privileged under the Act. However, the Court held that the defendant hospital had not provided sufficient information in its supporting affidavits to mandate a finding of privilege. According to the Court, the record did not enable it to rule out the possibility that the histories of procedures performed by the doctor weren’t kept in the ordinary course of the defendant hospital’s business.
Although the Court affirmed the lower court’s findings in nearly all respects, the Court nevertheless held that the defendant hospital’s refusal to produce was made in good faith, and not in contempt of the lower court’s authority. Accordingly, the Court vacated the finding of contempt.
We expect Klaine to be decided in eight to ten months.
Image courtesy of Flickr by Jasleen_Kaur (no changes).