Little v. Highland Hospital of Rochester

Little v. Highland Hospital of Rochester,

Nos. 18, 00-01951 (N.Y. App. Div. Feb. 7, 2001)

In this malpractice action against a New York hospital, New York’s Supreme Court, Appellate
Division held that the trial court properly ordered the hospital to provide
a woman with perinatal database information, as well as a copy of a letter written
by a nurse anesthetist to the Chairman of the hospital’s Anesthesia Department,
regarding the delivery of her son. Finding that the hospital did not establish
that the documents were “generated in connection with a quality assurance
review function” pursuant to statutory provisions in Education Law §6527(3),
the court held that the hospital failed to meet its burden of establishing that
the items in question were confidential and protected from disclosure by the
education statute. Furthermore, because the hospital did not establish that
the items requested by the woman were created in connection with a “malpractice
prevention program” pursuant to Public Health Law §2805-j,
the court held that the hospital failed to meet its burden of establishing that
the statutory provisions for confidentiality and protection from disclosure
of certain records extend to the hospital’s “written plan for…maintaining
the quality of patient care and…preventing…malpractice.”