 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Tomczak v. Ingalls Memorial Hospital8/17/2005
The plaintiffs, Michael and Eleanor Tomczak, as special administrators of the estate of their deceased daughter, Victoria Tomczak, filed the instant wrongful death and survival action against Ingalls Memorial Hospital (Ingalls), several treating physicians, and two healthcare corporations. During the course of discovery, the circuit court ordered Ingalls to disclose certain information from the emergency department records of numerous nonparty patients. Ingalls refused, claiming that the information sought was privileged and would not reasonably lead to the discovery of relevant information. Thereafter, at its own request, Ingalls was held in contempt of court and fined $50 for failing to comply with the court's discovery order. It is from these orders that Ingalls now appeals and, for the reasons which follow, we affirm in part, vacate in part, and remand this cause to the circuit court for further proceedings.
On July 16, 2001, the plaintiffs initiated the instant action, seeking damages under the Wrongful Death Act (740 ILCS 180/0.01 et seq. (West 2000)) and the Survival Act (755 ILCS 5/27-6 (West 2000)). Generally, the complaint alleged that the decedent entered Ingalls' emergency department at approximately 7 p.m. on October 18, 2000, and died early the next morning as a result of the defendants' delay in examining her and in administering appropriate treatment. During discovery, the plaintiffs served a number of interrogatories and requests for production of documents upon Ingalls. In response to these requests, Ingalls produced, inter alia, a redacted copy of its Emergency Department Daily Log (the Daily Log) from October 18, 2000, and October 19, 2000, which listed the sex, triage date, triage time, mode of arrival, chief complaint, treating physician, disposition, exit time, and final diagnosis for 140 patients, including the decedent. Ingalls also produced several documents relating to the organization, plan of care, and standard of care for its emergency department. These documents reflect that the emergency department utilizes a triage process in order to facilitate the safe and timely treatment of each patient according to their relative needs. Pursuant to this process, a triage nurse or technician assigns each patient an acuity designation of either critical, emergent, or urgent depending on an initial determination of the patient's subjective complaint. Critical patients are immediately taken into the emergency department to be treated by a physician, while non-critical patients are treated when a physician is available and based on the priority of their designation, with emergent patients receiving care prior to urgent patients.
After receiving the documents mentioned above, the plaintiffs served a third set of interrogatories upon Ingalls. Interrogatory No. 3, which forms the basis for this appeal, requested that Ingalls disclose the following information for 62 nonparty patients who were seen in the emergency department between 7:36 p.m. on October 18, 2000, and 2:45 a.m. on October 19, 2000: (1) "'Time In,' i.e., the time at which the patient is placed in the Emergency Department treatment area;" (2) the time each patient was first examined by a physician (hereinafter referred to as the "treatment time"); (3) and the triage acuity designation. Ingalls objected to the interrogatory as overly broad and unduly burdensome. The plaintiffs responded by filing a motion to compel wherein they argued that the requested information was relevant and necessary to support their theory that the decedent's treatment was negligently delayed.
On December 22, 2003, the circuit court granted the plaintiffs' motion to compel, and ordered Ingalls to produce the information sou
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Illinois Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
By using the system, you agree to TERMS OF SERVICE
|