QUESTION:
Our hospital recently received a request from a former Medical Staff member for a complete copy of her credentials and peer review files.  Are we required to provide the copies as requested?

ANSWER FROM HORTYSPRINGER ATTORNEY IAN DONALDSON:
While you always need to check your state law, in most states a hospital would not be required to provide a former Medical Staff member (or even a current member) with a copy of her credentials and peer review files.  (This is different than an HR file, as most states do require that employees be granted access to personnel files.)

To avoid any confusion when these types of requests are made, we recommend hospitals adopt a policy that governs access to credentialing and peer review files.  For existing members, the policy might describe the rules for accessing “routine” and “sensitive” documents, with sensitive documents receiving special protection (for example, names of those who raised a concern will be redacted).  For former members, the policy could state simply that copies will not be provided (assuming that is consistent with state law), but that the hospital will respond to credentialing requests from other hospitals so long as the former member has signed the appropriate authorization and release.

If you have a quick question about this, e-mail Ian Donaldson at idonaldson@hortyspringer.com.