Chanko v. Am. Broad. Cos. Inc. — Mar. 2016 (Summary)

PHYSICIAN-PATIENT CONFIDENTIAL RELATIONSHIP

Chanko v. Am. Broad. Cos. Inc.
2016 N.Y. Slip Op. 02478 (N.Y. Mar. 31, 2016)

The Court of Appeals of New York ruled that a company’s actions in filming a patient’s medical treatment and death in a hospital emergency room were not so extreme and outrageous as to support a cause of action by the patient’s family members for intentional infliction of emotional distress. However, the court ruled that the complaint sufficiently stated a cause of action against the hospital and treating physician for a breach of physician-patient confidentiality.

This litigation arose from the company’s filming of a documentary series about medical trauma and the professionals who attend to patients suffering from such trauma. No one informed the decedent or any of his family members that a camera crew was present and filming; nor was their consent obtained for filming or for the crew’s presence. Sixteen months later, the decedent’s widow watched an episode of the documentary on her television, and was subject to watching and reliving her husband’s death. This was the first time she became aware of the recording of decedent’s medical treatment and death.

The court reasoned that the broadcasting company’s actions were not so extreme and outrageous to satisfy the exceedingly high legal standard required for the tort of intentional infliction of emotional distress. The court stated that this was due to the editing of the footage: which did not include the decedent’s name, his image was blurred, and the episode included less than three minutes devoted to him. But the court also reasoned that the complaint sufficiently alleged that a fiduciary physician-patient relationship existed, and that the duty of confidentiality springing from that relationship was breached when the hospital allowed the film crew to be present during the filming of decedent’s medical treatment and to view such film at a later time, all without consent from the decedent or his family.