GOVERNMENTNewspaper wins right to publish peer reviewThe Denver hospital that sought a restraining order doesn't plan to appeal the current ruling and is assessing its lawsuit against the paper.By Tanya Albert, amednews staff. Nov. 10, 2003. The First Amendment supersedes laws in place to keep peer review confidential, a federal judge ruled in October. U.S. District Judge Walker D. Miller for the District of Colorado denied a hospital's request for a temporary restraining order against Denver's Rocky Mountain News. The University of Colorado Hospital Authority in Denver sought to stop the newspaper from publishing information contained in a report prepared as part of a peer review investigation. The hospital also asked that the restraining order prevent the paper from using the report, received in the mail from an anonymous source, to develop any stories. The result, hospital officials said, is that physicians may be less likely to participate in peer review -- or won't be as forthcoming with information -- if they believe that what they say could land in a newspaper. "The judge needed to weigh two interests -- the privacy interest of patients whose medical records were discussed and the statutory confidentiality of peer review," said Frederick Y. Yu, the attorney representing the hospital. "The judge found that the First Amendment trumps those two rights." The hospital cited the Colorado peer review statute, the Health Care Quality Improvement Act and the Heath Insurance Portability and Accountability Act as reasons why the paper shouldn't be allowed to publish or use information from the report. Patients whose names and medical conditions were discussed in the peer review report are entitled to privacy under federal laws, the hospital argued. In addition, witnesses who testified as part of the investigation were told that the information would be kept confidential and that their statements would not be reported to their supervisors. [...]Full text of American Medical News content is available to AMA members and paid subscribers.
Copyright 2003 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
|
The doctors are in the house
The AMA's House of Delegates is holding its Interim Meeting Nov. 7-10 in Houston, addressing issues such as health system reform and physician payment. Meeting coverage - Slideshow Feature articlesHealth reform review The Massachusetts experience Litigation stress Being sued is personal as well as professional Comprehensive coverage
Most-viewed
Nov. 9 issueHouse option for public plan wouldn't limit physician pay to Medicare rates New database for out-of-network pay set to replace disputed Ingenix system Columns and series
From the vault: 5 years agoGenetic testing issues land in primary care practices Nov. 8, 2004 
|
SHARE
