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Goodman v. Samaritan Health System3/16/1999
AFFIRMED
Herbert D. Goodman, M.D., sued Samaritan Health System, d/b/a Maryvale Samaritan Hospital, alleging claims of negligent peer review and malicious prosecution. The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of Samaritan, finding that Samaritan was statutorily immune from these claims pursuant to Arizona Revised Statutes Annotated ("A.R.S.") section 36-445.02(B) (1993), the peer review immunity statute. Goodman now appeals that ruling. We granted permission to the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Associa- tion and several other hospitals and medical centers to file a brief as Amici Curiae in favor of upholding the judgment. For the following reasons, we affirm the judgment.
BACKGROUND
Samaritan's Medical Staff Bylaws provide that a new physician applying for staff privileges in the Family Practice Department shall be appointed to the provisional staff for a twelve-month period. During this time, the applicant must complete ten supervised cases, in which physicians selected by the applicant look at the medical charts of the applicant's patients to review his documentation of patient history, physical examination, and treatment provided. If the applicant fails to complete these supervised case reviews within one year, he may receive one twelve- month extension.
Once the provisional process is completed, the applicant may then apply for a promotion to the courtesy or permanent staff. As part of the courtesy staff application process, the applicant consents to an investigation of his medical portfolio, as well as other relevant information regarding prior patient care.
Goodman applied for medical staff privileges at Samaritan in 1989 and was appointed to provisional staff in March 1990. After receiving a one-year extension, Goodman completed his mandatory supervised case reviews in 1991. In January 1992, Goodman submitted an application for appointment to courtesy staff and the required investigation of his medical portfolio and background was undertaken by an appointed committee.
Following completion of the investigation, the committee expressed concerns that: (1) Goodman had falsified information regarding his prior affiliation with two area hospitals; (2) the Arizona Board of Medical Examiners ("BOMEX") had censured Goodman for "unprofessional conduct" for misdiagnosing a patient and knowingly falsifying that patient's medical records; and (3) the audit of Goodman's supervised case reviews reflected concerns about his patient care and documentation. Goodman submitted a response to these concerns in which he explained the circumstances of his BOMEX censure and his failure to mention prior hospital affilia- tions. Primarily though, Goodman's response sought to refute the finding that his supervised case reviews reflected inadequate patient care and documentation.
In reply, the committee admitted that the audit of the case reviews "did contain a couple of misstatements" and according- ly arranged for Dr. Donald Mulvaney, the Director of the Family Practice Residency program at another Samaritan medical center, to independently review Goodman's supervised case reviews. Dr. Mulvaney concluded that two of the eleven patient charts did not meet the community standard of care. Consequently, he recommended that Samaritan deny Goodman courtesy staff privileges.
Notwithstanding Dr. Mulvaney's recommendation, the committee recommended that Goodman be elevated from provisional staff to courtesy staff conditioned upon the following: (1) completion of a mini-residency of at least six weeks' duration; (2) performance of ten additional supervised cases within one year; and (3) continued nonpartic
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