Levitin v. Northwest Community Hosp. (Summary)

PEER REVIEW PRIVILEGE

Levitin v. Northwest Community Hosp., N.D. Ill. (No. 13 C 5553 Oct. 31, 2014)

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois ruled that the state’s peer review privilege did not apply in a federal employment discrimination lawsuit brought by a physician. The physician claimed that the hospital peer review committees discriminated against her – the only female, Russian, Jewish surgeon on staff – while ignoring similar actions of non-Russian, non-Jewish male surgeons. To prove her claims, she sought peer review records regarding surgeons who she claimed were similarly situated to her. The court first held that any documents not generated specifically for peer review, such as credentialing and personnel files, did not fall under the scope of documents covered by the peer review privilege. Furthermore, the court found that the peer review privilege did not apply to the documents in this case because the information sought is relevant to Title VII claims of discrimination. According to the court, the interest of eradicating discrimination outweighs the interest of promoting candor in the peer review process. When the hospital raised concerns that the peer review documents would be broadly distributed once produced, the court assured that the peer review materials would remain protected from widespread dissemination.