Trial Court Addresses Peer Review Privilege Claimed by Hospital

In the case of Limprevel v. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, No. 18082309 (C.P. Phila. Co. July 19, 2021 Foglietta, J.), the court found that a Defendant hospital failed to demonstrate that documents identified in its privileged log in this medical malpractice case were protected under the Peer Review Protection Act where the evidence illustrated that those documents were not in fact produced for a peer review.

In this Rule 1925 Opinion, the trial court recommended that the Superior Court affirm its Discovery Order.

According to the Opinion, this medical malpractice case arose out of an outbreak of an adenovirus in the neonatal intensive care unit in the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in 2016. The hospital medical director began an investigation into the outbreak. 

In this case, the Plaintiff sought certain discovery from the hospital, including materials relative to the notice provided to the medical director after receiving notification of the outbreak. 

The trial court ordered the hospital to produce certain documents and unredacted versions of other documents. The hospital filed this appeal, which prompted this Rule 1925 Opinion by the trial court. 

As stated, the court ruled that the documents at issue were discoverable because the hospital had failed to establish that the documents at issue were created for purposes of a peer review. As such, the court found that the peer review privilege did not apply.

Anyone wishing to review a copy of this decision may click this LINK.


Source: “Digest of Recent Opinions.” Pennsylvania Law Weekly (Oct. 5, 2021).

Source of image:  Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Unsplash.com.