Mileikowsky v. West Hills HMC (2007) 154 Cal.App.4th 752, review granted Dec.12, 2007, S156986.

Horvitz & Levy LLP represents West Hills Hospital Medical Center (West Hills HMC) in this California Supreme Court case, which will decide the scope of authority possessed by the hearing officer presiding over medical staff peer review proceedings. The Supreme Court granted review to decide the following issue: "Does the hearing officer presiding over a medical peer review proceeding under Business and Professions Code sections 809 et seq. have authority to terminate the proceeding for party misconduct, in this case the violation of the hearing officer's discovery orders?"

Two years ago, the Court of Appeal in Mileikowsky v. Tenet Healthsystem (2005) 128 Cal.App.4th 531 held that "in order to ensure that the [medical peer review] hearings mandated by the Business and Professions Code proceed in an orderly fashion, hearing officers must have the power to control the parties and prevent deliberately disruptive and delaying tactics. The power to dismiss an action and terminate the proceedings is an important tool that should not be denied them." (Id. at p. 561.)

In the present case, involving the very same plaintiff, a different Court of Appeal held that it must "respectfully part company with the court in Tenet Healthsystem on the question whether the hearing officer, acting on his or her own authority, can terminate a [hospital peer review] hearing . . . ." (Mileikowsky v. West Hills HMC (2007) 154 Cal.App.4th 752, 772.) The West Hills HMC court held that, contrary to the result reached in the Tenet Healthsystem appeal, the hearing officer had no authority to dismiss an action or terminate peer review proceedings in order to prevent disruptive or delaying tactics.

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