Madsen v. Audrain Health Care,

Madsen v. Audrain Health Care,
No. 01-3252 (8th Cir. July 18, 2002)

The
Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed, for the most part, a decision of the
United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri to dismiss
a physician’s claims against a hospital and individual doctors of the hospital
over the loss of his medical staff privileges. The physician signed an agreement
guaranteeing him a minimum income from the hospital and alleged that terminating
him through the peer review process effected a breach of that contract. The
court held that the contract expressly provided that if the physician should
lose his staff privileges, that action would terminate the agreement, thus it
did not constitute a breach of contract.

The court also held that a mere reference in the physician’s agreement to the
medical staff bylaws did not create a contractual relationship with regard to
those bylaws in their entirety. The physician was bound only to the separate
specific parts referenced in the agreement, with contractual enforcement to
all bylaws needing to be set out in a separate document. The court additionally
noted that just because a physician was bound to the bylaws did not automatically
bind the hospital as well, absent an express stipulation as such.

The only claim the court reversed the dismissal of was the claim of slander,
which, procedurally assuming the facts plead to be true, the court was unable
to say that there was not enough there to support his claim entitling him to
relief.