Background
Crystal Renae Constantine presented to the emergency department at Baltimore Washington Medical Center (“BWMC”) twice in early 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The first time was on April 22, 2020 and the second time was three days later, on April 25, 2020. During the April 22 ED Visit, Constantine reported a fever, muscle aches, chills, nausea, mild cough, and diarrhea. According to medical records, Constantine also told health care providers at the emergency department that “a bunch of people at her work were sick and suspected COVID-19 positive[.]” Health care providers at the emergency department assessed her as having “suspected COVID-19,” but did not test her for COVID-19 because she did not meet the testing criteria in effect at the time.
Three days later, on April 25, 2020, Constantine returned to the BWMC emergency department by ambulance with knee and back pain, sweats, chills, and a cough. She informed emergency department personnel that she had increasing knee pain and that “she was diagnosed as suspected COVID [t]here on April 22, 2020.” Health care providers at the emergency department diagnosed her as “suspected COVID-19 virus infection” and “knee effusion,” discharged Constantine again without testing for COVID-19, and instructed her to return if she had “difficulty breathing.”
Constantine presented to another emergency department on April 30, 2020, where she was determined to be septic and was diagnosed with Group A streptococcus and vegetation consistent with endocarditis. She did not test positive for COVID-19 on April 30, 2020.
Constantine filed a Maryland medical malpractice lawsuit for alleged medical negligence against Baltimore
Washington Emergency Physicians, Inc. (“BWEP”), the physician group that staffs the emergency department at BWMC. The trial court granted BWEP’s motion for summary judgment based on the statutory immunity provided by PS § 14-3A-06. Constantine filed an appeal and argued that the circuit court erred as a matter of law when it granted summary judgment in favor of BWEP.
In its unpublished opinion filed on February 28, 2024, the Appellate Court of Maryland stated: “PS § 14-3A-06 provides that “[a] health care provider is immune from civil or criminal liability if the health care provider acts in good faith and under a catastrophic health emergency proclamation.” We start with the fundamental and incontrovertible premise that there was a “catastrophic health emergency proclamation” in effect at the time of the April 22 ED Visit and the April 25 ED Visit as a result of Governor Hogan’s March 5, 2020, proclamation that “in an effort to control and prevent the spread of COVID-19 within the State,…effective immediately… a state of emergency and catastrophic health emergency exist[ed] within the State of Maryland”… The record before us does not include any indication that Constantine alleges that any actions on the part of BWEP personnel were not in good faith. That leaves us with the portion of PS § 14-3A-06 that is the primary focus of this appeal–whether BWEP health care providers acted “under a catastrophic health emergency proclamation” when they assessed, treated and diagnosed Constantine during the April 22 ED Visit and the April 25 ED Visit, with the key word being “under” … By any rational measure, BWEP provided COVID-related care to her during the April 25 ED Visit, even while not providing the care she alleges she required for her knee. Indeed, she made that very connection in her complaint: the failure of care, she alleged, occurred when BWEP discharged her “and did nothing to rule out an infectious process.””
The Appellate Court of Maryland held: “Whether viewed individually or collectively, the April 22 ED Visit and the April 25 ED Visit were sufficiently related to the COVID-19 catastrophic health emergency proclamation for the healthcare providers from BWEP to be entitled to immunity pursuant to PS § 14-3A-06 … The circuit court did not err in granting summary judgment pursuant to the immunity provision in PS § 14-3A-06.”
Source Constantine v. Baltimore Washington Emergency Physicians, Inc., No. 2132 September Term, 2022.
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