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Fed Court Confirms It: Peer-Review Participants Are Immune

By Janice G. Inman

Peer review systems serve an important purpose in ensuring quality health care is provided to patients. However, one problem with peer review systems is that it they may be used for improper purposes, such as to punish a whistle-blower or a person whom those high up in a medical institution simply dislike. Many are the health care providers who have felt singled out for discipline for unjust reasons. Often, their only recourse has been to sue the members of a peer review team, their bosses and their hospital for torts such as defamation or interference with professional relationships, but because of peer review immunity rules and statutes, such tactics often prove futile. In particular, the U.S. Congress' passage of the Health Care Quality Improvement Act (HCQIA), U.S.C. 42 ” 11101 ' 11152, squelched many hopes for financial compensation for peer-review excesses.

It looked like one doctor had successfully bucked that system in 2003 when he won a huge judgment against a hospital and a superior that had suspended his privileges for 29 days while they investigated allegations of substandard performance against him. After that award was overturned by an appellate court, the doctor took an appeal to the U.S. Court of appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The Fifth Circuit decision in Poliner v. Texas Health Systems, — F.3d —-, 2008 WL 2815533 (C.A.5 (Tex.)), concurring with the lower appellate court, has put another damper on the hopes of unhappy peer-reviewed medical professionals who want to seek monetary damages for their real or perceived injuries. On the other hand, the decision has eased the minds of those who must step up to ensure the quality of medical care, even when it means taking away some or all of a colleague's privileges.

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