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Huntsman v. Aultman Hospital3/28/2005
re entity shall be held in confidence and shall not be subject to discovery or introduction in evidence in any civil action against a health care entity or health care provider, including both individuals who provide health care and entities that provide health care, arising out of matters that are the subject of evaluation and review by the peer review committee. No individual who attends a meeting of a peer review committee, serves as a member of a peer review committee, works for or on behalf of a peer review committee, or provides information to a peer review committee shall be permitted or required to testify in any civil action as to any evidence or other matters produced or presented during the proceedings of the peer review committee or as to any finding, recommendation, evaluation, opinion, or other action of the committee or a member thereof. Information, documents, or records otherwise available from original sources are not to be construed as being unavailable for discovery or for use in any civil action merely because they were produced or presented during proceedings of a peer review committee, but the information, documents, or records are available only from the original sources and cannot be obtained from the peer review committee's proceedings or records." (Emphasis added)
{ } The statute clearly states that such documents cannot be obtained from the peer review committee's records. As stated by the Ohio Court of Appeals for the Ninth Appellate District, "the language of R.C. 2305.252 must be given its plain meaning. The legislature has left no doubt regarding whether these documents are obtainable from [peer review and credentialing files]. They clearly are not." (Citation omitted.) Hammonds v. Ruf, Summit App. No. 22109, 2004-Ohio-6273. In Hammonds, the court went on to find that the trial court abused its discretion when it ordered the documents from the peer review and credentialing files to be disclosed by appellant Summa Health System in violation of a clear statutory mandate prohibiting such disclosures.
{ } In this case, the trial court appeared to recognize that it could not order Aultman Hospital to provide the documents to appellee. Instead, it ordered Aultman Hospital to provide an identifying list of the documents to appellee. The trial court reasoned that it could at least order Aultman Hospital to identify the documents so that appellee could then obtain them from their original sources.
{ } However, this order violates the clear intention of the statute. The statute states that such records will be held in confidence and are not subject to discovery. It even goes so far as to state that individuals who attend a meeting of a peer review committee or provide information to a peer review committee shall not be permitted or required to testify in any civil action as to any evidence or other matters produced or presented during the proceedings. The trial court's order for the hospital to give appellee information from which the documents can be identified allows appellee to discover what documents were before the committee. We find that the statute makes all information regarding such documents privileged and unobtainable from the hospital. As Aultman Hospital concedes, appellee can obtain these documents from original sources. However, pursuant to R.C. 2305.252, appellee cannot obtain information concerning these documents from the hospital. Therefore, we find that the trial court erred when it ordered Aultman Hospital to provide a list identifying the documents to appellee.
{ } Accordingly, appellants' assignments of error are sustained. The April 8, 2004 judgment entry of the trial court ordering that Aultman Hospital provide a list to appe
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