The Texas Court of Appeals reversed a $23 million jury verdict against a hospital for "malicious credentialing," finding that the record contained insufficient evidence to conclude that the hospital acted with "conscious indifference" in credentialing a physician.

The hospital granted staff privileges to a physician despite having actual knowledge of the physician's addiction to prescription drugs. When the physician injured a patient during surgery, the patient alleged that the hospital had acted with malice in credentialing the physician. The court noted that the record contained no information regarding the hospital's actions when it learned of the physician's drug addiction. The record did not show whether the hospital required the physician to undergo evaluation, monitoring or supervision, or whether the hospital simply did nothing. In the absence of such evidence, the court ruled that it could not infer that the hospital was consciously indifferent in credentialing the physician.