Disability Rights North Carolina v. Moses H. Cone Mem’l. Hosp. Operating Corp. (Summary)

PEER REVIEW DOCUMENTS

Disability Rights North Carolina v. Moses H. Cone Mem’l. Hosp. Operating Corp., No. 1:11CV812 (M.D. N.C. Sept. 11, 2013)

The United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina granted the motion of an entity serving as the state’s protection and advocacy group for individuals with disabilities, holding that there was no issue of material fact regarding the entity’s statutory authority to access a deceased patient’s records during an investigation, and required a hospital to provide the records to the entity.

The entity had probable cause to believe that the deceased patient had been abused or neglected while in the hospital and started an investigation.  During the investigation, the hospital refused to provide all the documents requested by the entity.  The court, ruling that the hospital was required to provide the documents, stated that the entity had sufficiently demonstrated that it was entitled to access the patient’s records because of its investigative authority and its designation as the state’s protection and advocacy group.

The court also held that providing the documents to the entity was not a waiver of the peer review privilege because the hospital was required to turn the documents over as part of the investigation.  The court also denied the hospital’s request for a protective order, stating that it would unnecessarily burden the entity’s function as the state’s protection and advocacy group and that the group would be bound by federal laws regarding the maintenance and confidentiality of records, so there was no reason to further limit it with a protective order.