A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit today heard oral arguments in a case brought by Menorah Medical Center in Overland Park, KS, to overturn a 2015 National Labor Relations Board decision that directly threatens the confidentiality of the hospital peer review process. The board’s decision, the hospital argues, erroneously required it to produce peer review documents to the union; incorrectly struck down the hospital’s rule requiring confidentiality of discussions at peer review proceedings; and required the hospital to permit direct participation in the peer review process by third-party union representatives that could risk a general waiver of peer review privilege. Judge Kavanaugh in direct questioning of NLRB counsel focused on peer review as an essential way to monitor and improve health care delivery and the importance of strict confidentiality to its success, quoting directly from a friend-of-the-court brief filed by the AHA, Federation of American Hospitals, state hospital associations in Kansas and Texas, Texas Nurses Association and American and Texas Organizations of Nurse Executives. AHA, the Kansas and Texas Hospital Associations and Texas Nurses Association had previously supported the hospital before the board.

Related News Articles

Blog
Public
Recent data from Press Ganey, reflecting input from over 1.4 million health care employees, reveals that after an initial post-pandemic rebound, employee…
Headline
The AHA and other national health care groups sent a letter to members of the House and Senate appropriations committees, urging them to provide $778 million…
Headline
An article in the May edition of AHA’s Trustee Insights highlights what physicians seek in their relationships with hospitals, and how those relationships are…
Headline
The National Security Agency, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and international partners May 22 released guidance on securing data used for…
Headline
A replay of the Hospital Capacity Management Consortium’s Spring Symposium is now available. The event, for health care capacity management professionals,…
Headline
The AHA May 12 responded to the Office of Management and Budget's April 11 request for information on regulatory relief, making 100 suggestions to the Trump…