Blatchley v. Cunningham — Apr. 2016 (Summary)

PEER REVIEW PRIVILEGE

Blatchley v. Cunningham
Civil Action No. 15-cv-00460-WYD-NYW (D. Colo. Apr. 18, 2016)

The United States District Court for the District of Colorado granted a protective order in favor of a medical center, holding that the state peer review statute protected the records of the medical center’s trauma peer review committee, thus preventing discovery in a personal injury lawsuit.

In this case, the patient requested, during the discovery phase of her lawsuit, “any and all information regarding [her] created by or for any professional review, peer review or quality control or management from the [medical center].”  The medical center objected, claiming peer review privilege for the records of its trauma peer review committee.  The patient argued that even if the records of the committee are peer review records, the facts that are embedded within them – as opposed to the records of deliberations of the Committee – are not privileged since the privilege does not apply to original source documents.

The court disagreed, noting that the peer review statute does not make a distinction between facts and deliberation, nor does the statute specifically state that facts can be discovered from records generated as part of the peer review process.