The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee concluded that a hospital’s affirmative defenses pursuant to the Healthcare Quality Improvement Act (HCQIA) were not sufficient to independently establish federal jurisdiction, and therefore approved a physician’s motion to remand the state court case that had been removed to federal court by the hospital defendant.…

The Joint Commission announced the suspension of the planned July 2009 implementation date for the revised MS1.20 Medical Staff Standards.  The Implementation Task Force has recommended a full field review and anticipates both changes to the existing proposals and a delayed implementation date.  The full text of the news release is available …

Innovative Application of Section 1981 and Medical Staff By Laws as Contracts

Ennix v. Stanton (and Alta Bates Summit Medical Center) significantly broaden the use of 42 U.S.C. §1981 in credentialing cases. In this United States District Court case for the Northern District of California, the court denies the hospital’s motion for summary judgment, holding…

The Kadlec case is the latest in the trend to find hospitals and physicians liable for "negligent credentialing." The theory is that hospitals are responsible if they allow incompetent physicians to operate on patients at their facilities. This first phase of negligent credentialing has been on the books for almost twenty years.Continue Reading KADLEC REVERSED: HOSPITAL ABSOLVED OF NEGLIGENT CREDENTIALING BUT PRIVATE PRACTICE PHYSICIANS REMAIN LIABLE

Bipolar Physician Has ADA Standing to Sue for Medical Staff Privileges

In Haas v. Wyoming Valley Healthcare System, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania concluded that a physician had standing under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 5.04 of the Rehabilitation Act concluded that an…

Malpractice Plaintiff Obtains Peer Review Records

A United States District Court has decided that malpractice plaintiffs seeking recovery pursuant to the Federal Tort Claims Act are entitled to obtain hospital peer review records, regardless of state immunity laws. In Vezina vs. United States of America, the Plaintiff brought suit for personal injuries, allegedly suffered while…

Georgia Peer Review Decision Exhibits Rare Common Sense

Finally, there seems to be a peer review decision that exhibits common sense. In Madonna v. Satilla Health Services, Inc., and LeFever vs. Satilla Health Services, Inc., the Georgia Court of Appeals handed a peer review decision in a case pitting exclusive contract rights against individual…

TOO MUCH IMMUNITY IN PEER REVIEW!

An Iowa Appellate Court has reversed the earlier trial court decision in Estate of Horst G. Blume v. Marian Health Center, first reported in the MedLaw Blog on April 9, 2007. 

The trial court previously held the hospital had breached the medical staff bylaws and was therefore excluded from…