Bailey v. Manor Care of Mayfield Heights (Summary)

PEER REVIEW PRIVILEGE

Bailey v. Manor Care of Mayfield Heights, No. 99798 (Ohio Ct. App. Nov. 7, 2013)

The Court of Appeals of Ohio reversed in part and affirmed in part a trial court’s ruling granting a motion to compel filed by an administrator of a deceased patient’s estate in a negligence suit brought against a nursing home.   The nursing home argued that the materials requested by the estate were protected by Ohio’s peer review and quality assurance privileges.  The trial court disagreed, granting the motion to compel.

On appeal, the state appellate court first concluded that federal regulations giving residents of long-term care facilities the right to access all of their records do not preempt the state peer review privilege.  The appellate court then concluded that “based on the evidence before it and given the lack of an in camera inspection of the documents, the trial court could not conclude as a matter of law that investigation reports were not subject to [the peer review and quality assurance] privilege….”  Accordingly, the appellate court ordered the trial court to conduct an in camera review of the documents and advised that the trial court require, among other things, that the nursing home file a detailed privilege log with the court.