Robert D. Toler v. Cornerstone Hospital of Huntington, LLC

Summary

This is a dissenting opinion in an appeal concerning whether a hospital incident report was protected from discovery under West Virginia’s peer review privilege statute. The dissent argues that the report involved a nonpatient’s fall and was not created exclusively for or used by a qualifying review organization to evaluate patient care. It criticizes the majority for extending the privilege beyond the statutory language and purpose.

Holdings

1. In the dissent's view, the incident report was not privileged because it concerned a nonpatient visitor and the record did not establish that it was created for the purpose of evaluating patient care or the services of health care professionals.
2. The dissent concluded that Cornerstone failed to carry its burden of demonstrating that the peer review privilege applied to the incident report.

Questions Presented

1. Whether an incident report concerning a nonpatient visitor's fall in a hospital was a privileged record of a review organization under West Virginia Code §§ 30-3C-1 to -3.
2. Whether the hospital met its burden to establish that the incident report was created exclusively by or for a review organization and used solely in the peer review process.
3. Whether the circuit court improperly treated the occurrence of a nonroutine event in a hospital as sufficient, without a fact-specific inquiry into patient care or peer review, to establish the privilege.

Disposition

affirmed