The Medical staff counselor
-
This article discusses requirements imposed under the Health Care Quality Improvement Act of 1986 for reporting actions involving malpractice claims and disciplinary proceedings against physicians and other individual health care practitioners. The article also summarizes the implications of companion provisions of the Act which specify mandatory and permissive requirements for obtaining such information in credentialing and quality assurance activities involving those practitioners.
-
Despite the valid purpose of the Health Care Quality Improvement Act of 1986--to restrict the practice of incompetent physicians through effective peer review--the author believes the Act will increase the number of unfair disciplinary hearings, while eliminating a physician's remedies for such wrongful conduct.
-
The Health Care Quality Improvement Act of 1986 offers broad protection against damages, including treble damages for antitrust violations, for hospitals and medical staffs engaging in peer review activities. The author focuses on the immunity provisions of the Act--how immunity may be invoked, important limitations of the Act, and the Act's probable effect on physician staff privilege litigation.