You are here: / / Circumstances Warranted Overcoming Physician-Patient Privilege—Substantive...
, ,

Circumstances Warranted Overcoming Physician-Patient Privilege—Substantive Explanation of the Privilege and Its Application (Including When a Court May Decline to Enforce It)

In a medical malpractice case, the plaintiff sought logs from the defendant-hospital which described the surgical procedures done by defendant surgeon during the times of plaintiff’s surgeries. The plaintiff sought to demonstrate the surgeon was doing too many procedures in too short a time to have properly performed them.  Although the hospital produced the logs, the information describing each procedure was redacted. Plaintiff’s motion to compel was denied by Supreme Court, which held the information about surgeries on non-party patients was privileged. The Second Department reversed.  Although the information was deemed privileged by the Second Department, the information could properly be discovered because it was “material and necessary” to the plaintiffs’ case and the privacy of the non-party patients could be protected by redaction.  The facts presented a situation where the court could properly decline to enforce the privilege. The Second Department provided a substantive explanation of the physician-patient privilege and its application:

… CPLR 4504(a) … provides that “[u]nless the patient waives the privilege, a person authorized to practice medicine . . . shall not be allowed to disclose any information which he [or she] acquired in attending a patient in a professional capacity, and which was necessary to enable him [or her] to act in that capacity” (CPLR 4504[a]…).

The enactment of the statutory physician-patient privilege “was based on the belief that fear of embarrassment or disgrace flowing from disclosure of communications made to a physician would deter people from seeking medical help and securing adequate diagnosis and treatment” … . “The privilege applies not only to information communicated orally by the patient, but also to information obtained from observation of the patient’s appearance and symptoms” …. “Moreover, the form in which the information is sought to be introduced is irrelevant, as the privilege operates whether the information is contained in a patient’s medical files or is sought to be introduced at trial in the form of expert testimony” … .

“That which the privilege seeks to protect, however, and thereby foster, are confidential communications, not the mere facts and incidents of a person’s medical history” … . The statute “is not intended to prohibit a person from testifying to such ordinary incidents and facts as are plain to the observation of any one without expert or professional knowledge” … . Accordingly, although the privilege protects a patient from the disclosure of a communication made to a doctor, “a witness may not refuse to answer questions regarding matters of fact . . . merely because those topics relate to events that required medical care or advice from a physician” … .

Furthermore, “where the application of a privilege will not serve to further the legitimate purposes for which it was created, there is little reason to permit its invocation” … . Accordingly, “courts may properly decline to enforce the physician-patient privilege where its invocation does not serve its policy objectives” … .

However, even where redaction of identifying information will ensure that the policy objectives of CPLR 4504(a) are not subverted, disclosure of otherwise privileged information should not be permitted where it is not “material and necessary in the prosecution or defense of [the] action” (CPLR 3101[a][1]…). Here, although the listing of each surgical procedure … was privileged under CPLR 4504(a) …, the plaintiff established that the subject information is indeed “material and necessary” (CPLR 3101[a]) in the prosecution of the action, and that the circumstances warrant overcoming the privilege … .Cole v Panos, 2015 NY Slip Op 04269, 2nd Dept 5-20-15

 

You might also like
UNDER STATE CONSTITUTIONAL STANDARDS, THE WARRANTLESS SEARCH OF A MESSENGER BAG AT THE TIME OF DEFENDANT’S ARREST WAS NOT JUSTIFIED BY EXIGENT CIRCUMSTANCES, CONVICTIONS REVERSED.
LAW OFFICE FAILURE JUSTIFIED CONSIDERING EVIDENCE WHICH COULD HAVE BEEN PROVIDED IN SUPPORT OF THE ORIGINAL MOTION, MOTION TO RENEW PROPERLY GRANTED, HOWEVER DELAYS IN DISCOVERY WARRANTED SANCTIONS AGAINST PLAINTIFF (SECOND DEPT).
FAILURE TO PRESERVE SURVEILLANCE VIDEO WHICH ALLEGEDLY SHOWED HOW PLAINTIFF WAS INJURED WARRANTED A SANCTION, EVEN THOUGH PLAINTIFF DID NOT DEMAND THE TAPE OR ASK THAT IT BE PRESERVED.
Either Possession of the Note or an Assignment of the Note Confers Standing
THE AFFIDAVIT RELIED UPON BY PLAINTIFF IN THIS FORECLOSURE ACTION TO PROVE DEFENDANT’S DEFAULT DID NOT IDENTIFY OR ATTACH THE RELEVANT BUSINESS RECORDS AND THEREFORE THE AFFIDAVIT HAD NO PROBATIVE VALUE (SECOND DEPT).
THE JUDGE SHOULD NOT HAVE ISSUED A PROTECTIVE ORDER REQUIRING PLAINTIFFS’ COUNSEL TO INFORM DEFENDANTS’ FORMER EMPLOYEES THAT COUNSEL’S INTERESTS ARE ADVERSE TO THEIRS AND TO RECOMMEND THE FORMER EMPLOYEES RETAIN COUNSEL BEFORE ANY DISCUSSION WITH PLAINTIFFS’ COUNSEL (SECOND DEPT).
EVEN IF THE MISREPRESENTATION THE HOME WAS TO BE OWNER-OCCUPIED WAS INNOCENTLY MADE, RESCISSION OF THE FIRE INSURANCE POLICY WAS JUSTIFIED.
LABOR LAW CLAIMS PROPERLY DISMISSED, DEFENDANT WAS NOT AN AGENT OF THE OWNER OR CONTRACTOR, DID NOT CONTROL THE MANNER OF WORK, DID NOT CREATE THE DANGEROUS CONDITION, AND DID NOT HAVE NOTICE OF THE DANGEROUS CONDITION.

Categories

Sign Up for the Mailing List to Be Notified When the Site Is Updated.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Copyright © 2025 New York Appellate Digest, Inc.
Site by CurlyHost | Privacy Policy

Supreme Court Used the Wrong Standards When It Denied Petitioner’s Request... Sua Sponte Dismissal for Lack of Standing Improper—Defense Waived by Failure...