New Health Care Liability Action Opinion: Trial Court's Dismissal of Complaint Upheld in Part and Reversed in Part Due to the Application of the Healthcare Operations Exception to the General Requirement That a HIPAA-compliant Authorization for the Release of Medical Records Be Included with the Presuit Notices Served on Potential Defendants

The Tennessee Court of Appeals has released its opinion in Christie v. Baptist Memorial Hospital, No. W2022-01296-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Nov. 15. 2023). 

Plaintiffs appeal the dismissal of their health care liability claims against a hospital and two doctors who treated their daughter on the day of her birth and tragic death. The trial court reluctantly ruled that the plaintiffs failed to substantially comply with Tennessee Code Annotated section 29-26-121(a)(2)(E) and dismissed the claims as untimely. We conclude that the plaintiffs met their burden to show substantial compliance with section 29-26-121(a)(2)(E) as to the defendant hospital, but not the defendant doctors. We therefore affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand for further proceedings.

Here is a link to the slip opinion: ChristieLauraSOPN.pdf (tncourts.gov).

NOTE: This opinion does a good job of explaining the healthcare operations exception to the general requirement that presuit notice be accompanied by a HIPAA-complaint medical records authorization under Tenn. Code Ann. sec. 29-26-121. That exception is what saved the claim against the hospital because it allowed the Tennessee Court of Appeals to find that there had been substantial complaint with section 29-16-121(a)(2)(E).