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Hospital Allowed to Keep Report from Disclosure
In a decision that could influence discovery in federal medical-device products liability litigation, a Magistrate Judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York has held that a state-law provision designed to encourage hospitals to maintain quality assurance and infection control programs without fear of litigation can be invoked to block disclosure of hospital records even where there is, at most, an indirect threat of a malpractice suit and where the target of a lawsuit is a party other than the hospital or a medical professional. In Strini v. Edwards Lifesciences Corp., Slip Copy, 2006 WL 3751338, (N.D.N.Y., 12/19/06), Judge David R. Homer found that a New York hospital's quality assurance report concerning a contaminated valve implanted in a patient was shielded from disclosure by state Public Health and Education laws even though the plaintiff is suing the company that provided the valve and not the hospital.
'[M]edical malpractice prevention is not the sole purpose of either statutory protection and the pendency or possibility of a medical malpractice claim is not a requirement for the applicability of either provision,' Magistrate Judge Homer wrote. 'Where, as here, a document was generated to insure and improve the quality of care to patients, that document is protected from compelled disclosure by the Public Health and Education Laws in the absence of a formal claim of medical malpractice,' he said.
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