The Louisiana Court of Appeals ruled in August that investigation records and survey citations are admissible in medical malpractice and wrongful death investigations.
A Louisiana peer review law permitting juries to hear about regulatory agency surveys, deficiency statements and investigatory records in cases against healthcare providers trumped a rule excluding such evidence when the investigation and the lawsuit involved the same facts, according to the state court of appeals.
The case involved a medical malpractice wrongful death and survival action filed by Yvonne Sawyers and Patricia Hall against the Naomi Heights Nursing Home & Rehabilitation Center and Guardian Hospice Care in Alexandria, LA.
The plaintiffs filed the lawsuit on behalf of their mother, Cecelia Sullivan, who died in November of 2013 while residing at the facility. They alleged that the providers’ lack of medical care led to their mother developing a stage four ulcer and sepsis.
The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals conducted unannounced investigations of both the nursing home and hospice facility in July and August of 2013. The facilities were cited by officials for various deficiencies, including failure to treat pressure ulcers properly.
The plaintiffs also contended that both Naomi Heights and Guardian Hospice had admitted the deficiencies contained in the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals reports.
The facilities argued, however, that the records from investigations conducted by the state health department were inadmissible as “hearsay evidence.”
The Louisiana Court of Appeals disagreed with the providers, however, noting that an exemption is an “investigation of a particular complaint, case or incident, including an investigation into the facts and circumstances on which the present proceeding is based.”
From the October 2019 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News
