Gabbe v. Eliot at Erie Sta.

Summary

The Appellate Division, Second Department, affirmed an order denying Orange Regional Medical Center and Greater Hudson Valley Health System's request for a protective order concerning an incident report. The court held that although the defendants established that the report was created as part of a quality-assurance review program protected under Education Law § 6527(3) and Public Health Law § 2805-m(2), they failed to show that the report's statements were not made by a party to the action. Accordingly, the incident report was subject to disclosure.

Holdings

1. An entity seeking the statutory medical quality-assurance privilege must establish that the documents were prepared or maintained in accordance with the relevant statutory review procedure. The defendants met that threshold by submitting an affidavit establishing that the incident report was created as part of ORMC's required quality-assurance review program.
2. The statutory quality-assurance privileges do not protect statements made by a person attending the quality-control or medical-malpractice meeting who is a party to an action concerning the subject matter reviewed. The defendants failed to meet their burden of demonstrating that the statements in the report were not made by a party because they did not identify the speaker.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the April 26, 2016 incident report was protected from disclosure under Education Law § 6527(3) and Public Health Law § 2805-m(2).
2. Whether the defendants met their burden to establish that statements in the incident report were not statements made by a party and therefore did not fall within the statutory exception to the privilege.

Disposition

affirmed