Southard v. United Regional Health Care System, Inc.

245 F.R.D. 257, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 59827, 2007 WL 2332545
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Texas
DecidedAugust 14, 2007
DocketNo. 7:06-CV-011-R
StatusPublished

This text of 245 F.R.D. 257 (Southard v. United Regional Health Care System, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Southard v. United Regional Health Care System, Inc., 245 F.R.D. 257, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 59827, 2007 WL 2332545 (N.D. Tex. 2007).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

ROACH, United States Magistrate Judge.

This is a case brought by Plaintiffs under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), Title 42, USCA § 1399(d)(B) properly called the “Anti-Dumping Act.” Plaintiffs are the survivors of Troy Lee Aylor (“Aylor”) who died shortly after being discharged from the Emergency Room of United Regional Health Care System (“Hospital”). Plaintiffs claim that Hospital failed to provide Aylor with “adequate medical screening” and discharged him while he was in an “unstable emergency medical condition,” thereby contributing to or causing [259]*259his ultimate death. Plaintiffs assiduously assert that they are not bringing a medical malpractice action.

This is not the first discovery dispute among the parties. In 2006 Plaintiffs propounded a set of interrogatories and discovery requests to the Hospital, to which the Hospital levied numerous and various objections. Following a hearing on Plaintiffs’ first Motion to Compel, on December 6, 2006 this Court entered an order disposing of the Hospital’s objections (docket entry # 23) and directed supplementation of the Hospital’s answers and production responses. Thereafter, in May 2007 Plaintiffs propounded a second set of interrogatories with production requests to the Hospital. Once again the Hospital answered with a battery of objections and qualifications of its answers and responses to the second set of discovery requests. And again, Plaintiffs have filed a second Motion to Compel (docket entry # 35). The Motion was specially referred to the undersigned by Order of Reference by the Honorable Sam Lindsay who had been assigned the case following the former judge’s recusal. Plaintiffs’ Second Motion was accompanied by a Brief and extensive Appendix. Within the court-ordered shortened response time, Defendant Hospital timely filed its Response with an accompanying Brief and extensive Appendix composed of affidavits of Hospital personnel setting forth factual information regarding the burdensomeness upon the Hospital to meet Plaintiffs’ various interrogatories and production requests. Plaintiffs timely supplemented its Appendix with copies of the pleadings filed during the interim and with another Brief. A lengthy telephone conference was conducted on August 8, 2007 with a court reporter present at the Magistrate Judge’s office to make a record and transcript of the proceedings.

After reviewing the parties’ written submissions and the arguments of counsel, I find and conclude as follows:

1. First out of the chute the Defendant has objected to the Plaintiffs’ definitions of terms and phrases set forth in the production requests and interrogatories. Defendant assets that the definitions are “self-serving and expand or alter the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.” This is especially so, the Defendant assets, where the definitions relate to words of common usage within the English language. Defendant’s arguments seem a bit disingenuous since Defendant has previously argued that the term “symptom” was too broad and undefined. See Defendant’s Reply Brief on prior Motion to Compel, docket entry # 20. Plaintiffs respond by observing that Defendant has levied no objection as to the correctness of the definitions, but only that they maybe too “tight,” not allowing the Defendant any wiggle room. Plaintiffs ardently argue that experience in the past, both with this Defendant and with others in other eases, reflect that unless definitions are employed with inclusive tight language, the Defendant here, and defendants generally, can engage in semantic games so as to skirt their production and/or response obligations.

Finding nothing untoward or erroneous with the language adopted in the terms and phrases used by Plaintiffs, I conclude that Defendant’s objections thereto should be, and are hereby, OVERRULED.

2. Turning now to Defendant’s substantive objections to production of the Hospital records of patients other than Aylor, this is not the parties’ first rodeo, and not even their first event in the second rodeo. Plaintiffs’ counsel and the Hospital’s counsel have locked horns over the same and similar issues before Magistrate Judge Bleil last year in Martinez v. Porta, 2006 WL 3289187 (N.D.Tex.). Magistrate Judge Bleil’s decision was affirmed by Judge Terry Means over the Hospital’s objections. In Martinez, also an EMTALA case arising from the death of a patient discharged from the Hospital’s Emergency Room, Judge Bleil ordered the production of medical records of “each person who was a patient in the Emergency Dept ... and presented with symptoms similar to Martinez’ or received cardiac-type treatment,” but reduced the time period sought by the Plaintiff from six years to three years predating Martinez’ discharge from the Hospital. Judge Bleil also made further restrictions and modifications of the production requirements. In affirming Judge Bleil’s decision, Judge Means iter[260]*260ated that under EMTALA a hospital must provide “appropriate” medical screening. Appropriateness is adjudged by whether the screening at issue “was performed equitably in comparison to other patients with similar symptoms” citing Marshall v. E. Carroll Parish Hospital, 134 F.3d 319, 322-24 (5th Cir.1998). Since Judge Bleil had incorporated special confidentiality protections in his Order for disclosure of the medical records (paraphrasing the exact language of the exceptions permitted under HIPAA), Judge Bleil had no difficulty in disposing of the Hospital’s privilege/confidentiality objections. Texas Health & Safety Code § 161.032; Irving Healthcare System v. Brooks, 927 S.W.2d 12 (Tex.1996).

In this case, Plaintiffs have restricted their interrogatories and production requests to a single one-year time period immediately preceding Aylor’s death. Plaintiffs have identified and articulated seven symptoms they allege Aylor presented to the ER personnel and have likewise identified and articulated two cardiac tests that had been administered to Aylor (an ECG/EKG and a cardiac enzymes test). Under the holdings of the Supreme Court, the Fifth Circuit and the Judges of the Northern District of Texas, “appropriateness” is measured by comparison to other patients and their symptoms and to an extent by the scope of the Hospital’s screening protocol. If the Hospital’s screening protocol for the Emergency Room were merely a flip of the coin, that protocol would not be “appropriate screening,” even if used consistently among all patients presenting to the Emergency Room. On the other hand, a hospital is not required to perform every single bodily function test for every person who presents to the Emergency Room, even if such protocol were equitably applied to all patients. The appropriateness of screening is necessarily dependent upon the symptoms presented, the tests run, the diagnoses made and the actions taken after diagnosis. Necessarily, a comparison must be made between or among the symptoms presented by Aylor, the tests run and the diagnoses made as compared to other patients. It is not every patient other Aylor who presented at the ER that is appropriate for comparison. Similarly, it is not just patients who presented all of the seven symptoms alleged to have been presented by Aylor to whom comparison should be made.

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Related

Irving Healthcare System v. Brooks
927 S.W.2d 12 (Texas Supreme Court, 1996)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
245 F.R.D. 257, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 59827, 2007 WL 2332545, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/southard-v-united-regional-health-care-system-inc-txnd-2007.