Coy v. Washington County Hospital District

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State: Illinois

Court: 5th District Appellate

Docket No: 5-06-0140 Rel

Case Date: 04/09/2007

Preview:NO. 5-06-0140
N O T IC E Decision filed 04/09/07. The text of this dec ision m ay b e changed or corrected prior to the P e t i ti o n for filing of a or the

IN THE APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS

Re hea ring

FIFTH DISTRICT _________________________________________________________________________ THOM AS COY, D.O., ) Appeal from the ) Circuit Court of Plaintiff-Appellee, ) Washington County. ) v. ) No. 05-L-2 ) WASHINGTON COUNTY HOSPITAL ) DISTRICT, d/b/a Washington County ) Hospital, ) ) Defendant-Appellee ) ) (The Southern Illinoisan, Intervening ) Honorable Petitioner-Appellant, and Nashville News, ) Richard Brown, Intervening Petitioner). ) Judge, presiding. _________________________________________________________________________ PRESIDING JUSTICE WELCH delivered the opinion of the court: Intervenor-appellant The Southern Illinoisan, a daily newspaper headquartered in Carbondale with readership across a broad swath of southern Illinois, appeals the February 21, 2006, order of the circuit court of Washington County denying The Southern Illinoisan's request that the court unseal, with respect to the names of patients contained therein, the court's order of February 18, 2005, in the above-captioned case. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the circuit court's February 21, 2006, order. On June 28, 2004, defendant-appellee Washington County Hospital District, a publicly owned hospital, suspended the medical privileges of plaintiff-appellee Dr. Thomas Coy, who was at the time a hospital employee. The hospital cited "several" recent cases of substandard medical care and stated that a suspension was necessary to reduce the likelihood of immediate injury to patients. On January 21, 2005, Dr. Coy sued the hospital. Dr. Coy

disposition of the same.

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alleged procedural deficiencies in his suspension, sought the enforcement of a related settlement agreement, and requested various other forms of relief not directly relevant to this appeal. Journalists for the Nashville News, a weekly newspaper in Washington County, and The Southern Illinoisan reported on matters concerning the hospital and Dr. Coy. On February 18, 2005, presumably pursuant to settlement negotiations, counsel for Dr. Coy forwarded to the hospital an agreed order, which counsel requested that the hospital submit to the court. On the same date, the hospital delivered to the court a letter requesting that the court file the accompanying agreed order under seal. For reasons that neither Dr. Coy nor the hospital has been able to explain adequately, the agreed order contained, inter alia , the names of the seven nonparty patients to whom Dr. Coy had allegedly provided substandard care. The order did not contain any other information about the patients and did not reference the patients' medical records, conditions, or diagnoses. The court complied with the hospital's request, entering, under seal, the February 18, 2005, order that is the subject of the present appeal. Subsequently, reporters from the Nashville News and The Southern Illinoisan who had been covering the case visited the office of the Washington County circuit clerk and inspected the court file in the case, finding, inter alia , the sealed order. In an effort to seek access to the sealed order, the Nashville News and The Southern Illinoisan filed a petition to intervene in the lawsuit. A hearing on the petition was held on June 21, 2005. The petition to intervene was granted on July 22, 2005, and on August 11, 2005, the intervenors filed a motion for access to the sealed order. The hospital filed a response to the motion for access, to which the intervenors in turn replied. On August 15, 2005, Dr. Coy moved to amend the sealed order to prohibit the disclosure of the nonparty patient names contained therein but to unseal the remainder of the settlement agreement. Eventually, on October 4, 2005, the circuit court granted Dr. Coy's motion to amend

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the sealed order, thereby unsealing the order but for the names of the seven nonparty patients. The intervenors moved the court to vacate or, alternatively, to reconsider its decision, and oral argument was held. On February 21, 2006, the court entered an order denying the request of the intervenors to unseal the order with regard to the names of the patients. In support of its decision to deny the request to unseal, the trial court relied upon Tomczak v. Ingalls Memorial Hospital, 359 Ill. App. 3d 448 (2005). The trial court ruled that granting the request to unseal would violate the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (hereinafter HIPAA) (42 U.S.C.

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