Moore v. Board of Trustees of Carson-Tahoe Hospital

495 P.2d 605, 88 Nev. 207, 1972 Nev. LEXIS 432
CourtNevada Supreme Court
DecidedApril 6, 1972
Docket6684
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 495 P.2d 605 (Moore v. Board of Trustees of Carson-Tahoe Hospital) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nevada Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Moore v. Board of Trustees of Carson-Tahoe Hospital, 495 P.2d 605, 88 Nev. 207, 1972 Nev. LEXIS 432 (Neb. 1972).

Opinions

OPINION

By the Court,

Mowbray, J.:

The appellant, George L. Moore, is a doctor of medicine and is licensed to practice in the State of Nevada. He also [209]*209enjoyed medical staff privileges at the Carson-Tahoe Hospital until they were terminated on February 19, 1970, by action of the Hospital Board of Trustees. Doctor Moore filed a petition in the district court seeking a writ of mandate in an effort to force the Board to restore his medical staff privileges. The district judge denied his request and hence this appeal.

The issues presented for our consideration may be summarized under two headings: (1) Is the action of a governing board of a public hospital arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable when it terminates the medical staff privileges of a physician on the grounds of unprofessional conduct, where the acts constituting the conduct complained of are not'expressly defined and prohibited in the bylaws, rules, and regulations promulgated by the hospital? (2) Is there sufficient evidence in this case to support the findings of the Board?

1. Doctor Moore was charged with 12 alleged acts of unprofessional conduct, and he was found guilty of Charges Nos. 7 and 11 of the complaint. Those charges read as follows:

“7. On or about July 26, 1969, you attempted to administer to an O.B. patient, ready to deliver a baby, a spinal anesthetic without benefit of sterile technique in that you prepared the medication, performed a minimal skin preparation and placed your fingers on the spinal needle, all without wearing sterile gloves. Additionally, you attempted the spinal puncture several times, all attempts being unsuccessful.”
“11. On or about July 28, 1969, you had a meeting with the Chief of Staff, Doctor Thomas Hines, and Doctor William King, at approximately 7:30 a.m. in the morning, after which Doctor Hines, with the concurrence of Doctor King, cancelled certain surgery you had scheduled on the basis that you were in no condition physically or mentally to perform surgery.”

2. The Carson-Tahoe Hospital is a public hospital and is governed by the provisions of NRS 450.010 through 450.700. NRS 450.160 provides as follows:

“The board of hospital trustees shall make and adopt such bylaws, rules and regulations for its own guidance and for the government of the hospital, and such rules and regulations governing the admission of physicians to the staff, as may be deemed expedient for the economic and equitable conduct thereof, not inconsistent with NRS 450.010 to 450.510, inclusive, or the ordinances of the city or town wherein such hospital is located.”

NRS 450.180, subsection 4, further provides:

“The board of hospital trustees shall have the power:

[210]*210“4. To control the admission of physicians, surgeons and internes to the staff by promulgating appropriate rules, regulations and standards governing such appointments.”

The Hospital Board of Trustees, as the governing body of the institution, promulgated bylaws, rules, and regulations designed to govern the medical staff of the Hospital.

NRS 450.440, subsection 1, provides:

“1. The board of hospital trustees shall organize a staff of physicians composed of every regular practicing physician in the county in which the hospital is located who meets the standards fixed by the rules and regulations laid down by the board of hospital trustees.”

The delegated power to establish admission standards for medical staff members impliedly includes the power to continue to regulate membership after admission. It is axiomatic under the rule of statutory construction that a power conferred by statute necessarily carries with it the power to make it effective and complete. See Checker, Inc. v. Public Serv. Comm’n, 84 Nev. 623, 629-630, 446 P.2d 981, 985 (1968), citing Koelling v. Board of Trustees, 146 N.W.2d 284 (Iowa 1966).

Article 4, Section 5, of the Hospital’s “By-Laws, Rules & Regulations Governing the Medical Staff” provides in part that any Medical Staff member “who is guilty of unprofessional conduct, may have his privileges reviewedf,] altered or rescinded by the Board of Trustees on recommendation of the Medical Staff.” Doctor Moore was formally charged by a complaint that set forth with specificity in 12 counts the acts with which he was charged. He was present with counsel at all stages of the proceedings and was afforded the right of cross-examination of witnesses and the right to call witnesses in his own behalf. There is no procedural due process challenge presented in this case. Rather, Doctor Moore complains that he was denied substantive due process because the acts of which he was found guilty (numbered paragraphs 7 and 11 of the complaint) were not specifically proscribed in the Hospital’s “By-Laws, Rules & Regulations Governing the Medical Staff,” and therefore they cannot constitute a predicate for the Board’s conclusion that he was guilty of unprofessional conduct. We do not agree.

In North Broward Hosp. Dist. v. Mizell, 148 So.2d 1 (Fla. 1962), the court held that the governing body of the hospital should be permitted certain discretion under the broad standard “[for] the good of the hospital or the patients therein,” and [211]*211that such words were essentially the same in meaning, when used in such context, as those used in other instances to authorize suspension for “unprofessional conduct.” The court ruled that the particular bylaw provision set an objective standard upon which a board could act and by which a physician would have sufficient notice to guide him in his conduct. The court said, 148 So.2d at 5:

“. . . There is at least equal difficulty in precise definition of professional fitness for staff membership in any given institution . . . Detailed description of prohibited conduct is concededly impossible, perhaps even undesirable in view of rapidly shifting standards of medical excellence and the fact that a human life may be and quite often is involved in the ultimate decision of the board.”

The Oregon Supreme Court, in a case involving a revocation of a physician’s license to practice medicine, said in In re Mintz, 378 P.2d 945, 948 (Ore. 1963):

“. . . [T]he variety of forms which unprofessional conduct may take makes it infeasible to attempt to specify in a statute or regulation all of the acts which come within the meaning of the term.

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Bluebook (online)
495 P.2d 605, 88 Nev. 207, 1972 Nev. LEXIS 432, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/moore-v-board-of-trustees-of-carson-tahoe-hospital-nev-1972.