Merrill v. Agnesian Healthcare, Inc. (Summary)

CREDENTIALING

Merrill v. Agnesian Healthcare, Inc., No. 07-C-938 (E.D. Wis. Feb. 23, 2009)

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin denied a hospital’s summary judgment motion in a suit brought by an osteopathic obstetrician/gynecologist whose application for staff privileges was denied solely on the basis that he was an osteopathic physician.

The rules and regulations for the hospital’s Department of Obstetrics required applicants for staff privileges at the hospital to be certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology ("ABOG"). The osteopath here was certified by the American Osteopathic Board of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Accordingly, the hospital informed him that his application was incomplete and could not be processed. Even though the hospital ultimately changed course several months later and extended privileges to the osteopath, he had already moved out of town and incurred considerable expense. The court held that there was sufficient evidence that the hospital "denied" the osteopath’s application on the sole basis that he was an osteopath. According to the court, this conclusion was grounded in the fact that the hospital immediately granted the osteopath privileges once it eliminated its requirement that all applicants be ABOG certified.

The court also found that the hospital’s "Acknowledge, Consent and Release" form, signed by the physician at the time of application, did not protect the hospital because it only released from liability "all representatives and agents of [the hospital] and its Medical Staff" and not the hospital itself. Finally, the court ruled that Wisconsin’s peer review statute did not insulate the hospital from liability because it applied to those acting in good faith and participating in the review or evaluation of the services of health care facilities or charges for such services and not to the initial credentialing process.