Doctors Conducting Peer Review Can Recover Compensatory and Punitive Damages for Confidentiality Violations

By Alex Stein

The Supreme Court of New Mexico has recently delivered an important decision protecting peer reviewers’ statutory entitlement to confidentiality. Yedidag v. Roswell Clinic Corp., — P.3d —- (N.M. 2015), 2015 WL 691333. The Court ruled that peer reviewers can sue violators of their confidentiality right and recover compensatory and even punitive damages. This ruling applied the common law criteria for identifying statutory violations as a breach of contract. Based on those criteria, the Court categorized peer reviewers as members of the class protected by the peer review statute, who deserve remedies for violations of their confidentiality right. The Court also estimated that the criminal penalty imposed by the statute on the right’s violators was too lenient to discourage violations. The Court projected that allowing peer reviewers to sue violators will compensate for the resulting shortfall in deterrence. As a conceptual matter, the Court decided that peer reviewers’ confidentiality entitlement is a “mandatory rule of law incorporated into physician-reviewer employment contracts.” Read More

Suits for nursing-home neglects sound in general negligence rather than medical malpractice, and are consequently not subject to damage caps

By Alex Stein

The West Virginia Supreme Court has recently delivered a super-important malpractice decision, Manor Care, Inc. v. Douglas, — S.E.2d —- (W. Va. 2014), holding that suits for nursing-home neglects sound in general negligence, rather than medical malpractice, and are consequently not subject to damage caps. This decision is very well reasoned and I expect it to be followed in other states that cap medical-malpractice damages.  Read More

Anti-Abortion Practices at Catholic Hospitals as Medical Malpractice

By Alex Stein

The New York Times has recently reported about a suit filed by ACLU against the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops for requiring Catholic hospitals to avoid abortion “even when doing so places a woman’s health or life at risk.” The suit unfolds a disturbing story about an 18-week pregnant woman who rushed to the Mercy Health Partners in Muskegon, Michigan – the only one in her county – after breaking water. According to the suit, the plaintiff’s pregnancy was not viable but posed significant risks to her health. Instead of inducing labor or surgically removing the fetus to reduce the plaintiff’s chances of infection, the doctors at Mercy Health sent her home. The doctors also did not tell the plaintiff that her pregnancy is not viable and that it poses risk to her health. The plaintiff returned to the hospital next morning and was sent home again (!!) despite her bleeding and pain. On her third visit to the hospital – with severe pain and fever – the plaintiff miscarried and her fetus died shortly thereafter.

Described by the NYT as opening “a new front in the clash over religious rights and medical care,” the suit was filed in federal court in Michigan. Read More