In re Christus Santa Rosa Health Sys. — May 2016 (Summary)

PEER REVIEW

In re Christus Santa Rosa Health Sys.
No. 14-1077 (Tex. May 27, 2016)

The Supreme Court of Texas held that a trial court abused its discretion when it ordered that medical peer review documents be disclosed without adequately reviewing those documents before compelling production.

A health system convened a peer review committee to review a surgery after the surgeon removed thymus gland tissue instead of the thyroid tissue in a patient, but, ultimately, the committee did not recommend any disciplinary action regarding the physician.  The patient brought suit against the surgeon, and the surgeon brought the health system into the suit.  The surgeon made a request for production of the peer review file, the health system objected by stating that the documents were privileged, the surgeon filed a motion to compel production and the documents were sent to the trial court for in camera inspection.  The trial court ordered the health system to produce the documents under a protective order, and the health system appealed to the Texas Supreme Court.

The state peer review law provides that documents will be disclosed if a peer review committee takes action that could result in disciplinary action against a physician.  The surgeon’s interpretation of the law was that a committee would take action when it convened to review the quality of medical care because it has the ability to recommend disciplinary action.  The Texas Supreme Court disagreed with that interpretation, and found that the trial court did not review the documents to determine whether the committee took any action that could result in disciplinary action against the surgeon.  Thus, the Texas Supreme Court determined that the trial court must review the documents to determine whether the committee took such action, which would authorize disclosure of the report to the physician.