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Patton v. St. Francis Hosp.

Under Georgia's peer and medical review statutes, the proceedings and records of a review organization are not discoverable.

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This case concerns the applicability of the statutory discovery cloak afforded under the peer review and medical review statutes.1 Dr. Robert Patton contends the trial court erred in denying his motion to compel discovery directed to St. Francis Hospital because 1 a malice exception applies to the discovery privileges, 2 the medical review and peer review statutes do not apply where the process itself is under attack, and 3 the medical review committee failed to strictly adhere to its bylaws. We find no merit in Patton’s arguments, and affirm the trial court’s order denying Patton’s motion to compel discovery.

Patton is a board-certified cardiologist, a sole practitioner, and was a member of the medical staff of St. Francis Hospital from 1975 to 1995. On December 19, 1995 the board of trustees of the hospital formally terminated Patton’s clinical privileges. Termination was made at the recommendation of the Medical Staff Executive Committee “MSEC”, which is responsible under medical staff bylaws for conducting peer reviews of its staff. The recommendation by the MSEC was preceded by a year-long peer review process. The review was initially requested, following the death of one of Patton’s patients, by Dr. Fred M. Burdette, who is a board-certified cardiothoracic surgeon and was a member of the MSEC when he made the request. The peer review proceeding represented the fourth time the hospital had disciplined Patton because of patient care concerns.

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