Scenario: Dr. Higgins is medical director of a large Physician Hospital Organization. To promote good patient care, medical management meetings are held on a monthly basis. Because some of the meetings are devoted to a review of physician technical performance associated with adverse events, Dr. Higgins wonders if there is any protection from legal discovery of the meeting's proceedings.
Generally, records and reports generated by medical peer review committees for the purpose of promoting good clinical practice and constructive criticism are protected by state statute from discovery.
In Massachusetts, for example, the peer review statute protects the proceedings, reports, and records of a medical peer review committee from legal discovery.In order to be afforded statutory protection, the formal peer review process of an entity should be clearly delineated in its bylaws and patient care assessment plan.
In Massachusetts, peer review protection is extended if it can be demonstrated that the materials are necessary to comply with required risk management and quality assurance programs and are necessary to the work product of medical peer review committees.
In addition, (in Massachusetts) only certain health care entities are afforded statutory peer review protection, such as hospitals, health maintenance organizations, licensed clinics, and nursing homes. Check with your risk manager or legal counsel for the peer review limitations in other states.
RMF´s Guide for Risk Management Issues in the Managed Care Setting;Liability Associated with Managed Care Organizations (MCO), January 1999.
