The family of a child with cerebral palsy went to the Florida Supreme Court this week in a dispute involving a 2004 constitutional amendment designed to force hospitals and other health providers to disclose records.
Jade and Justin Wiles filed a medical-malpractice lawsuit against Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare, alleging that their child’s cerebral palsy stemmed from a birth injury or from treatment he received at the hospital, according to a November ruling by a panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal.
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As part of that case, they sought “incident reports” from the hospital under the 2004 amendment. But the hospital fought turning over what is described as a “safety event report” that an employee created 12 days after the child was born.
The appeals-court panel, in a 2-1 decision, sided with the hospital but also urged the Supreme Court to take up the case. The family filed an initial notice Wednesday that is a first step in asking the Supreme Court to hear the dispute, according to court dockets.
The case involves the interplay of the state constitutional amendment and a 2005 federal law. That law allows hospitals to voluntarily submit information about medical errors to what are known as “patient safety organizations” — and offers certain confidentiality protections.
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The law was aimed, at least in part, at encouraging health providers to submit information that could be analyzed and used to prevent future medical errors.
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