The Tennessee Supreme Court has determined that the Quality Improvement Committee (QIC) privilege can be waived, following a case involving CHI Memorial Hospital. Under Tennessee law, healthcare organizations can form a QIC to evaluate patient care, with protections in place for records and statements related to these activities as per Tenn. Code Ann. § 68-11-272(c)(1).
The case was brought by Payton Castillo on behalf of her deceased husband, Marshal Castillo, against various healthcare providers, including CHI Memorial Hospital. After Mr. Castillo's death, Memorial established a QIC to review the care he received. During this process, hospital representatives disclosed protected QIC information to Mrs. Castillo when she was invited back to the hospital for an explanation regarding her husband's death.
Mrs. Castillo later sought access to these statements, but Memorial argued they were privileged and could not be discovered. Both the trial court and the Court of Appeals ruled that the information was discoverable since the meeting was separate from a QIC proceeding and thus not covered by privilege.
Memorial appealed to the Tennessee Supreme Court, which found that while the disclosed information fell under QIC protections, Memorial had waived its privilege by voluntarily disclosing it to Mrs. Castillo through their chief operating officer.
The unanimous opinion in Castillo v. Rex, et al., authored by Justice Dwight E. Tarwater, is available on TNcourts.gov.