The confidentiality of medical staff peer review has long been a cornerstone of hospital operations, fostering an environment where physicians can candidly evaluate medical care without the looming specter of malpractice exposure. But this established norm is facing a new threat in Colorado, where a ballot proposal aims to gut peer review confidentiality.
The Foundation of Peer Review Confidentiality
Peer review is a process in which physician conduct that endangers patients within a hospital can be immediately reviewed by peers. Peer review’s goal is to promote continuous ...
COVID-19 accelerated the trend of physician employment with hospitals, with recent data showing that nearly 70 percent of physicians are employed by hospitals or hospital-affiliated foundations or groups. While physician integration improves quality of care and clinical efficiency, it also blurs the separation of responsibilities between the medical staff and the employer. This can create headaches for stakeholders who want to address physician performance issues. …
Parties in peer review hearings can present a wide range of relevant evidence, regardless of its admissibility in a court of law. But California has passed a new “apology law” that modifies that standard, erecting a potential hurdle for medical staffs to admit relevant evidence against practitioners in peer review hearings.
Under California law, statements, writings, or benevolent gestures expressing sympathy or a general sense of benevolence relating to the pain, suffering, or death of a person involved in an accident are inadmissible in civil trials. (Evid. Code, § 1160.) ...
For more than 15 years, the process of selecting a hearing officer for a medical staff peer review proceeding has been strongly influenced by the decision in Yaqub v. Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System 122 Cal. App. 4th 474 (2004). That decision held that a hearing officer in a peer review proceeding was disqualified for a financial bias based upon the hearing officer's “long–standing and continuous relationship" with the hospital, which created a “possible temptation" to favor the hospital.
The court disqualified the hearing officer despite the fact that “there ...
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