California law extends whistle-blower protections to physicians...

Physicians now covered under the whistle blower clause...so as well as hospital employees, they too can now report discrepancies at hospital facilities...if peer reviews are of a retaliation nature the physicians will be protected to enable reporting of abuse...but it is not clear whether or not the physician could sue the peer review committee directly...peer reviews may never quite be the same...BD

The California Medical Assn. pushed to expand the law to let medical staff doctors sue a hospital if they suspect unfair treatment for reporting quality problems to the facility, its medical staff, or a government or accrediting body. The statute previously applied just to patients, nurses and "other health care workers." The change was set to take effect Jan. 1.

He cited examples of doctors having research grants taken away or office leases terminated for reporting unnecessary procedures performed at a hospital. Unjustified peer review was another concern, Michelin noted. These could include restoring a terminated contract or privileges during the peer-review process or blocking peer-review proceedings if a court finds them inappropriate, said Gregory Abrams, former CMA legal counsel, who assisted the association on the bill.

In addition, she contends the discovery provisions in the revised whistle-blower statute put an unnecessary burden on hospitals and medical staff to defend against potential disclosures of privileged peer-review-related materials