The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether a hospital facing a personal injury claim will need to answer questions about when it learned that one of its patients, who later went on to assault another patient, was a sex offender.
The justices on Wednesday granted allocatur in the case, captioned Pasquini v. Fairmount Behavioral Health Systems, to determine whether that information is discoverable, or if it must be kept confidential under the Mental Health Procedures Act. Specifically, the justices agreed to take up the question, “Is a provider’s knowledge of a patient’s status as a registered sex offender, which may have been obtained from therapeutic communication with the patient, confidential under the MHPA and privileged pursuant to the psychiatrist/psychologist privilege?”
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