West Florida Regional Medical Center v. See
18 So. 3d 676 (Fla. 1st DCA 2009) (September)
The district court affirmed the trial court’s order that the defendant hospital produce records of adverse incidents involving two of its doctors beyond what the plaintiff requested. The hospital argued that it was only required to produce those documents required by section 381.028(7)(b), but the district court held that Article X, section 25 of the Florida Constitution trumped that statute and cast a much wider net of what is producible. The district court also rejected the hospital’s argument that Article X, section 25 was preempted by the federal Health Care Quality Improvement Act of 1986, finding that they did not conflict. The hospital’s argument that Article X, section 25's application in this case violated the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution was also rejected. The district court held that the trial court departed from the essential requirements of the law in forcing the hospital to produce records regarding doctor training when there was no documented adverse incident to which that training related. Finally, the district court held that the trial court committed harmless error in allowing the plaintiff to discover blank applications from the hospital.