Under the New Jersey Patient Safety Act, certain documents created by a health care facility in investigating and analyzing an incident of possible medical malpractice may be considered confidential and privileged from disclosure. This may present some barriers in certain instances, if such information would help a victim of malpractice prove the negligence of the health care providers involved.
However, if the specified procedures of the PSA are not observed, or if the documents were generated for additional non-PSA purposes, then this absolute privilege does not apply, as demonstrated in the New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division case of
C.A. ex rel. Applegrad v. Bentolila.
An Infant Suffers a Brain Injury During Birth
According to the allegations, a nurse at the hospital where the mother gave birth to her daughter failed to timely discover or warn an obstetrician that her daughter was in a breech position. The daughter was not delivered by Caesarean section, which resulted in complications. The pediatrician who then assumed the child’s care negligently resuscitated the child, leading to brain injuries.
During the case, the mother sought discovery of the hospital’s investigative and peer review records related to her daughter’s birth. The hospital resisted this discovery.
Should the Hospital Hand Over the Document?
After the passage of the PSA law, the hospital established a patient safety committee to investigate “patient safety events.” However, prior to the enactment of the PSA, the hospital’s risk management department had also conducted internal investigations of patient complaints as part of the hospital’s “continuous quality improvement program,” and the director of that unit retained a role in such investigations.
After the incident, the director of patient safety had prepared an analysis of the birth, which memorialized a round-table discussion with hospital staff who knew of the events of the daughter’s birth. Several staff members then determined that the child’s brain injury was not an event that had to be reported to the state under the PSA. Consequently, the matter was not sent to the patient safety committee for review.
The New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division, held that this memorandum did not warrant the PSA’s confidentiality protection, given the nature of the document and the manner in which it was generated. None of the attendees at the round-table were physicians and the memorandum was not even sent to the patient safety committee. Further, the meeting was not conducted exclusively under PSA procedures, since the person overseeing the meeting also conducted investigations under the separate continuous improvement program.
Therefore, the document, in its entirety, would be turned over to the mother for use in the litigation to recover for her daughter’s birth injuries.
Aggressive Investigation Is Key
If you or your family believes they have suffered injury or loss due to medical malpractice, you should consult with an experienced attorney who will help you hold the responsible parties accountable. Seek an attorney who will aggressively investigate your case to uncover any evidence of medical malpractice.
