Scales v. Rapides Regional Medical Center2/6/2002
REVERSED AND REMANDED.
On April 10, 1996, Dr. Charles Rogers performed a bariatric surgical procedure, on Mrs. Frances Scales at Rapides Regional Medical Center (RRMC) in Alexandria, Louisiana. He had been prohibited from performing such procedures four months prior to her operation. Approximately ten days after the surgery, she developed a post-operative infection which, allegedly, resulted from the operation.
Early in 1998, she and her husband saw an advertisement, in the Arkansas Democrat newspaper, discussing a pending investigation and possible class action against Dr. Rogers. On March 16, 1998, one year and eleven months after her surgery, Mr. and Mrs. Scales filed a complaint with the Louisiana Patients' Compensation Fund, alleging that Dr. Rogers and RRMC deviated from the applicable standard of care during the April operation. Three days later, they filed a petition for damages, claiming that RRMC had negligently credentialed and supervised Dr. Rogers. Soon thereafter, RRMC filed a peremptory exception of prescription, which the trial court granted on June 18, 2001. Mr. and Mrs. Scales appeal. We reverse.
Prior to working at RRMC, Dr. Rogers practiced medicine in rural Arkansas. He had been Mrs. Scales' physician for several years prior to this litigation. In 1995, after RRMC had recruited him, she followed him from Arkansas to Louisiana for continuity of care, which included the April 10, 1996 surgery. Within six months of commencing his employment at the hospital, his major complication rate, during bariatric surgeries, skyrocketed to 50% - more than four times the national average. Consequently, RRMC began an investigation and, subsequently, placed him on probation and summary suspension, prohibiting him from performing bariatric surgery. Also, the hospital ordered him to undergo remedial education before returning to the operating room to perform this type of procedure.
None of Dr. Rogers' patients were privy to the investigation or suspension, because the hospital proceedings were kept confidential, pursuant to La.R.S. 13:3715.3(A)(2), which provides, in pertinent part:
ll records, notes, data, studies, analyses, exhibits, and proceedings of: any hospital committee . . .including, but not limited to, the credentials committee . . . shall be confidential.
Additionally, La.R.S. 44:7(D)(2) mandates that the records and proceedings of any hospital shall be confidential, not public record, and not available for court subpoena. However, when Dr. Rogers sued RRMC in federal court, the hospital published its review proceedings. Those proceedings form the basis of Mrs. Scales' claim against it.
Standard of Review
An appellate court may review a question of law to decide whether the trial court's decision is legally correct or incorrect. If the trial court's decision was based on its erroneous application of law, rather than on a valid exercise of discretion, its decision is not entitled to our deference. When we find that a reversible error of law was made in the lower court, we must redetermine the facts, de novo, from the entire record and render a judgment on the merits.
Medical Malpractice
La.R.S. 9:5628(A) states the time limit for filing medical malpractice claims. The statute provides, in pertinent part:
No action for damages for injury or death against any physician, chiropractor, nurse, licensed midwife practitioner, dentist, psychologist, optometrist, hospital duly licensed under the laws of this state, or community blood center or tissue bank as defined in R.S. 40:1299.41(A), whether based upon tort, or breach of contract, or otherwise, arising
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