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Berggren v. Saint Vincent's Catholic Medical Center of New York12/13/2004
This opinion is uncorrected and will not be published in the printed Official Reports.
In this personal injury action, plaintiff William Berggren seeks to compel the defendants to comply with certain documentary disclosure demands or, in the alternative, to strike their answer and immediately place the matter on the trial calendar. In response, defendants seek a protective order pursuant to CPLR §3103.
Plaintiff commenced this action seeking damages arising from injuries he alleges he sustained on November 20, 2003 when a chair collapsed from under him while sitting in the waiting room of defendant Bayley Seton Hospital's (Bayley Seton) Urgi Center. Plaintiff was present in the Urgi Center that day for a scheduled clinic visit.
In two notices for discovery and inspection dated June 2, 2004, plaintiff sought various discovery items including the following disputed items:
1. Any and all accident reports and/or incident reports, investigation reports regarding the incident of November 20, 2003;
2. any and all accident reports and/or incident reports for one year prior to the date of the incident;
3. Any and all accident and/or incident reports involving collapsed chairs for two years prior to the date of the incident;
4. Any and all inspection reports, repair reports, and/or maintenance reports regarding the chairs located on the defendant's premises.
(See Exhibits "A" and "B" of plaintiff's moving papers).
Defendants objected to these demands claiming that any and all incident reports that were prepared concerning this incident were privileged under Education Law §6527 and Public Health Law §§2805-j, 2805-l and 2805-m and additionally that the requests were "outrageously broad and burdensome". (see Exhibit "D" of plaintiff's moving papers). In defendants' motion for a protective order, they argue that these reports are confidential and were prepared 'in compliance with Public Health Law §2805 (j)-(m) requiring hospitals to report injuries to a patient other than those related to his illness and Education Law §6527 that provides that neither any quality assurance review record nor any reports which are required to be filed under Public Health Law §2805-l shall be subject to disclosure under CPLR article 3".
In essence, defendants' argument rests on characterizing plaintiff as a patient at the time of the November 20, 2003 incident based upon his scheduled clinic appointment. In Marte v. Brooklyn Hospital Center, 9 AD3d 41, 779 N.Y.S.2d 82, the Second Department observed that "the stated legislative objective behind the Public Heath Law requirement that hospitals report incidents affecting patient welfare was 'to assure quality care to all patients in hospitals' by requiring the 'timely reporting of emergencies and other incidents that threaten the safety of the patients or staff in a hospital'". Marte involved a patient who was sexually assaulted by an intruder in her hospital room. In this case, the facts involve a collapsed chair in a waiting room allegedly injuring a person waiting to be seen as an outpatient by the clinic. Under this analysis, anyone with a scheduled outpatient appointment would be unable to obtain reports generated by such incidents as a slip and fall in the hospital's parking lot or a trip on a defective stair or a sticky substance in a corridor.
The Court does not agree that the stated goal of assuring quality care to "all patients in hospitals" can be expanded to shield the hospital from producing relevant disclosure in a personal injury action that does not implicate any of the hospital's functions in providing health care to its patients or
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