[Download] "State Ex Rel Charles Town General Hospital v. Sanders" by West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals # Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: State Ex Rel Charles Town General Hospital v. Sanders
- Author : West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals
- Release Date : January 09, 2001
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 78 KB
Description
The petitioners herein, the Charles Town General Hospital, doing business as Jefferson Memorial Hospital, and the Medical Staff thereof [hereinafter collectively referred to as "the Hospital" or "Jefferson Memorial Hospital"], request this Court to issue a writ of prohibition to prevent the Circuit Court of Berkeley County from enforcing its order entered March 23, 2001. By that order, the circuit court, ruling in favor of the respondents herein, Anna Marie Chaffins [hereinafter referred to as "Mrs. Chaffins"] and her husband, Thomas Chaffins, Jr. [hereinafter referred to as "Mr. Chaffins"], determined that certain documents held by the Hospital and sought by the Chaffins in their underlying medical malpractice lawsuit were discoverable. In this petition for writ of prohibition, the Hospital claims that the circuit court improperly found that these documents were not protected by the privilege contained in W.Va. Code 30-3C-3 (1980) (Repl. Vol. 1998) of the West Virginia Health Care Peer Review Organization Protection Act, W.Va. Code 30-3C-1, et seq. Upon a review of the parties arguments, the record of documents at issue in this proceeding, and the pertinent authorities, we find that the writ requested by the respondents should be granted as moulded. To the extent that the contested documents are available from original sources extraneous to the medical credentialing process, they are not privileged and are subject to discovery. However, those documents, such as applications for staff privileges, that were generated as part and parcel of the credentialing process are protected by the health care peer review privilege pursuant to the terms of W.Va. Code 30-3C-3. In light of these rulings, we remand this matter to the Circuit Court of Berkeley County for further proceedings consistent with this Opinion.