Internal Reports Discoverable If Review Not Independent

The New Jersey Supreme Court has held that statutory compliance is required to sustain a privilege with respect to internal reviews of medical care

In this consolidated appeal, the Court considers whether internal reports and documents created after alleged adverse events occurred at the defendant nursing and assisted living facilities are discoverable or are instead privileged under the New Jersey Patient Safety Act (PSA), N.J.S.A. 26:2H-12.23 to -12.25.

Held

The only precondition to applying “the PSA’s privilege is whether the hospital performed its self-critical analysis in procedural compliance with N.J.S.A. 26:2H-12.25(b) and its implementing regulations.” Brugaletta v. Garcia, 234 N.J. 225, 247 (2018). One of those regulations requires that a facility’s patient safety committee operate independently from any other committee within the facility. See N.J.A.C. 8:43E-10.4(c)(4). The facilities in these consolidated appeals did not comply with that procedural requirement, and the disputed documents are therefore not privileged.

(Mike Frisch)