The New Jersey Supreme Court stated in its August 5, 2024 decision:
In this consolidated appeal, the Court considers whether internal reports and documents created after alleged adverse events occurred at the defendant nursing and assisted living facilities are discoverable or are instead privileged under the New Jersey Patient Safety Act (PSA), N.J.S.A. 26:2H-12.23 to -12.25.
In the first appeal, Keyworth v. CareOne at Madison Avenue, plaintiff Madeline Keyworth claims that she sustained injuries from two falls at a skilled nursing facility and seeks the facility’s internal incident reports and associated documents relating to those falls. In the second appeal, Bender v. Harmony Village at CareOne Paramus, plaintiffs Suzanne and Jonathan Bender, as co-executors of decedent Diane Bender’s estate, seek an incident report and associated documents regarding an alleged attack committed against decedent by another resident during her stay at an assisted living facility. In both appeals, the defendant institutions and caregivers asserted that the requested materials are not discoverable pursuant to the PSA’s self-critical-analysis privilege, which shields certain internal communications from discovery in litigation. See N.J.S.A. 26:2H-12.25(b), (c), (f), (g).
The trial courts in both matters found that the self-critical-analysis privilege did not apply and ordered defendants to disclose the materials. The Appellate Division reversed, concluding that defendants procedurally complied with the PSA and that the documents at issue are therefore privileged. 476 N.J. Super. 86, 107-09 (App. Div. 2023). The Court granted leave to appeal. 256 N.J. 126 (2024).
Enacted in 2004, the PSA and its implementing regulations set out a detailed procedural plan to minimize adverse events caused by patient-safety system failures in a hospital or other health care facility. N.J.S.A. 26:2H-12.24(b) and (c). Through the PSA’s multi-faceted framework, the Legislature aimed to encourage self-critical analysis related to adverse events and near misses by fostering a non-punitive, confidential environment in which health care facilities can review internal practices and policies and report problems without fear of recrimination while simultaneously being held accountable. The statute requires facilities to “develop and implement a patient safety plan for the purpose of improving the health and safety of patients at the facility” and sets minimum requirements for those plans, including the creation of “a patient safety committee, as prescribed by regulation.” N.J.S.A. 26:2H12.25(b). The PSA’s corresponding regulations outline the requirements for a patient safety committee in significant detail. Relevant here, the regulation directs that the “patient or resident safety committee shall not constitute a subcommittee of any other committee within a facility or health care system.” N.J.A.C. 8:43E10.4(c)(4). That exclusivity requirement is significant because other statutes, both federal and state, impose additional requirements on health care facilities including nursing homes.
HELD: The only precondition to applying “the PSA’s privilege is whether the hospital performed its self-critical analysis in procedural compliance with N.J.S.A. 26:2H-12.25(b) and its implementing regulations.” Brugaletta v. Garcia, 234 N.J.
225, 247 (2018). One of those regulations requires that a facility’s patient safety committee operate independently from any other committee within the facility. See N.J.A.C. 8:43E-10.4(c)(4). The facilities in these consolidated appeals did not comply with that procedural requirement, and the disputed documents are therefore not privileged.
Source Madeline Keyworth v. CareOne at Madison Avenue, (A-17/18-23) (088410).
If you or a loved one suffered injuries (or worse) while a resident of a nursing home in New Jersey or in another U.S. state due to improper nursing home discharge, improper nursing home transfer, a nursing home fall, nursing home aspiration, nursing home neglect, nursing home negligence, nursing home abuse, nursing home understaffing, or the nursing home failing to properly care for a vulnerable adult, you should promptly find a nursing home claim lawyer in New Jersey or in your state who may investigate your nursing home claim for you and file a nursing home claim on your behalf or behalf of your loved one, if appropriate.
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