PRIVACY OF HEALTH INFORMATION

Walters v. Columbia/St. David's Healthcare System, L.P., No. 03-03-00582-CV (Tex. Ct. App. Apr. 14, 2005)

A registered nurse brought allegations of defamation, intentional infliction of emotional harm, and tortious interference with a contract, claiming that she was disciplined in return for reporting a physician's negligence and substance abuse problems to her employer. The Court of Appeals upheld summary judgment for the hospital, finding the nurse had violated the hospital's confidentiality policy by calling her boyfriend, who was a doctor, to get a second opinion on a treating physician's plan of care for an emergency patient. This provided the hospital with a legitimate, non-retaliatory, business reason to discipline her. The court also held that, once the nurse resigned, the hospital had no duty to continue the peer review process related to her confidentiality violation.