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Longa v. Vicory6/7/2005
e absence of a physician-patient relationship, citing Kuester for that proposition. The Roberts court found that Indiana Code section 16-21-2-7 does not create a private right of action, and this court further rejected Roberts's argument regarding Kuester. "In Kuester, the court did not create a duty from a physician to a patient under Indiana Code ยง 16-21-2-7." Roberts, 813 N.E.2d at 816.
Vicory conceded at oral argument that there is no private right of action under Indiana Code section 16-21-2-7, but asserted that this does not close the door on the present case because the trial court found that the doctors had a non-delegable duty to provide peer review. But we note that Indiana Code section 16-21-2-7 makes the medical staff responsible for peer review to the governing board, not to patients or to the general public. While it is true that the public is a beneficiary of this duty, inasmuch as the general public health is protected by peer review, the plain language of the statute creates no duty from a physician to a patient in this context. See also Roberts, 813 N.E.2d at 816. Moreover, members of the peer review committee are immune from liability under Indiana Code section 16-21-2-8. It makes no sense that the individuals who are responsible for peer review would be immune from suit while those doctors who are not members of the Committee could be sued for the actions or failures of the Committee.
Were we to decide otherwise, placing individual responsibility for peer review on each and every doctor in a hospital, we would reach an absurd result. Each individual physician on a hospital's medical staff would be liable for any failure by any of the hospital's committees. In essence, any doctor with a hospital practice could be responsible for virtually any quality-related issue that arose in the hospital. Such as result is completely impractical, especially in larger hospitals that have hundreds of doctors on their medical staff.
We wish to make it clear that we do not condone a hospital's lack of attention to a pattern of suspicious deaths. These tragic events underscore the importance of peer review and review of death charts in hospitals. The plaintiffs here are not without a cause of action or a potential recovery for their injuries, but Drs. Longa and Spendal are not responsible for the alleged failures of the Committee.
The judgment of the trial court is reversed and remanded with instructions to enter summary judgment in favor of Drs. Longa and Spendal.
KIRSCH, C.J., and BARNES, J., concur.
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