In re Med. Malpractice Cases Pending in the Law Div.,
No. 1-02-1299 (Ill. App. Ct. Mar. 12, 2003)
After
commencement of a negligence suit against a hospital, the trial court asked
the Appellate Court of Illinois to interpret sections of the Hospital Licensing
Act relating to disclosure of patient treatment information between caregivers
and the hospital's legal department. The patients suing the hospital in the
lower court alleged that communications by caregivers who had contact with the
patient, but whose care was not at issue in the action, were: 1) a violation
of the patients' constitutionally guaranteed right to privacy; and 2) against
public policy protecting the physician-patient relationship from third party
disclosure.
The appeals court held that a patient's privacy rights were violated only by "substantial and unjustified" or "unreasonable" communications and that intra-hospital communications were not unreasonable communications beyond a patient's expectations. Further, a patient could not expect greater privacy post-filing than the patient had prior to filing a lawsuit. Moreover, the medical information was already hospital property.