Protecting hospital records from discovery

One of the more burdensome tasks confronting hospital administrators and defense counsel in hospital liability cases is attempting to protect sensitive or confidential information contained in hospital records. Plaintiffs' counsel continue to refine and broaden document requests as they become more sophisticated and experienced, learning about additional categories of documents that may be helpful to their cause. There are conditions that protect documents from discovery, but the rules of privilege are complicated and are frequently misunderstood.