Bartow HMA, LLC v. Kirkland (Summary)

AMENDMENT 7

Bartow HMA, LLC v. Kirkland, No. 2D13-674 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. Nov. 15, 2013)

The District Court of Appeal of Florida granted a hospital’s petition and quashed a lower court’s order directing the hospital to produce certain documents in a medical malpractice action brought by a patient.  The patient claimed she was injured when her surgeon made a last minute decision to convert a laparoscopic cholecystectomy to an open cholecystectomy.  During discovery, the patient filed multiple requests for documents.  The hospital argued that some of the documents were privileged under various state laws.  The patient argued that the documents should be made available to her under Florida’s Amendment 7, which permits patients access to records related to “adverse medical incidents.”  Without conducting a review of the documents, the lower court granted the patient’s requests.  On appeal, the appellate court observed that the patient’s requests for documents were not limited to adverse medical incidents.  As such, the lower court erred “in ordering a blanket production of all of the items identified in the [hospital’s] privilege logs without specifically determining whether those documents relate to adverse medical incidents within the meaning of Amendment 7.”