Federal Patient Safety Act Usurps State Peer Review Law

Federal law protects designated patient safety work product from disclosure in New Mexico, a federal court said (Quimbey v. Cmty. Health Sys. Prof’l Servs. Corp., 2016 BL 350158, D.N.M., 14-cv-559, 10/20/16).

Community Health Systems Professional Services Corp., operating as Mountain View Regional Medical Center, didn’t have to produce medication variance occurrence logs or incident/accident reports for review by a wrongful death plaintiff, the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico said.

The court Oct. 20 said the federal Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act (PSQIA) privilege preempted New Mexico’s Review Organization Immunity Act because it ...