Court rules medical staff applications are discoverable

The Illinois Supreme Court (the "Court") recently upheld an appellate court's decision that two hospitals had to turn over a physician's staff privilege applications to the plaintiffs suing for negligent credentialing because the documents are not privileged under the Health Care Professional Credentials Data Collection Act (the "Credentials Act"). Terry Wilson, BS, CPMSM, CPCS, director of medical staff services at Flagler Hospital in St. Augustine, Florida and editorial advisory board member of Credentialing and Peer Review Legal Insider shares her thoughts on what effect the court decision has on other medical staffs.

“In a nutshell, if everyone does their job right, there should be nothing to hide. I may be naïve (even with 30 years' experience), but I believe that for good cause, and with certain restrictions (protection of patient privacy), all information should be considered for discoverability. A healthcare organization's primary purpose is patient health and safety. Patient safety is accomplished via the organization's credentialing and quality processes as evidenced by information gathering, deliberation, and ultimate decision-making by those individuals involved. If, through these processes, the institution identifies an issue with a provider, they need to document and deal with the issue responsibly, timely, and reasonably while keeping patient safety at the forefront. Upon discoverability, the institution might still be held liable to some degree; however, the judicial system needs to recognize the clear distinction between true negligence (allowing chronic misbehavior or competency issues to linger) versus taking immediate action on a newly discovered concern.”