Case Name: CEDARS HEALTHCARE GROUP, LTD., d/b/a Cedars Medical Center, Petitioner, v. Margaret M. FREEMAN, Respondent
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 2002-11-06
Citations: 829 So. 2d 390
Docket Number: No. 3D02-1174
Parties: CEDARS HEALTHCARE GROUP, LTD., d/b/a Cedars Medical Center, Petitioner, v. Margaret M. FREEMAN, Respondent.
Judges: Before COPE and LEVY, JJ., and NESBITT, Senior Judge.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 829
Pages: 390–395

Head Matter:
CEDARS HEALTHCARE GROUP, LTD., d/b/a Cedars Medical Center, Petitioner, v. Margaret M. FREEMAN, Respondent.
No. 3D02-1174.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.
Nov. 6, 2002.
Parenti, Falk Waas, Hernandez & Corti-na and Gail Leverett Parenti, Coral Gables, for appellant.
Robert Rossano, Miami, for appellee.
Before COPE and LEVY, JJ., and NESBITT, Senior Judge.

Opinion:
ON MOTION FOR REHEARING
NESBITT, Senior Judge.
On consideration of Respondent's motion for rehearing, we deny the motion, with draw the opinion dated September 4, 2002, and substitute the following opinion.
Cedars Healthcare Group, d/b/a Cedars Medical Center, has petitioned for a writ of certiorari, seeking to quash a discovery order. We grant the petition and quash the order at issue. Certiorari review is proper, as there is no adequate remedy by appeal, and the order departs from the essential requirements of law. See Allstate Insurance Co. v. Langston, 655 So.2d 91 (Fla.1995).
The facts which precipitated the order are as follows. In 1999, Margaret M. Freeman was admitted to the Cedars psychiatric ward. She filed the underlying action against Cedars, alleging that during her stay, she was physically and sexually assaulted at least twice by at least two male patients, and that Cedars was negligent in failing to protect her from these dangerous fellow patients. Freeman served Cedars with a request for production of:
Any and all photographs taken of all the male patients who were present at the psychiatric ward of the Defendant hospital from March 12, 1999 through March 15,1999.
Cedars objected to the request as overly broad and burdensome, and argued that it improperly sought information which implicated the identity of other patients in the psychiatric ward, thus violating their privacy rights. Freeman filed a "Motion to Overcome Patient Confidentiality and/or Work Product Privilege and In Camera Inspection," alleging that she needed to look at the photos to identify her assailants. The trial court granted Freeman's motion.
Cedars relies on Amente v. Newman, 653 So.2d 1030 (Fla.1995), to argue that the plaintiffs discovery request violates the privacy rights of their non party psychiatric patients. In Amente, the Supreme Court allowed certain records to be provided to the plaintiff in a medical malpractice action, but required that all identifying information be redacted from those records. In the instant case we conclude that the photos at issue are exactly the type of identifying information that Amente concluded would not be subject to discovery.
The order at issue impinges upon the privacy rights of the non-party patients, and threatens to violate the patient/psychotherapist privilege codified in section 90.503(2), Florida Statutes (2001), as well as section 394.4615, Florida Statutes (2001), providing for the confidentiality of clinical psychiatric records. The reason for the latter privilege is to enable a person suffering from mental, emotional, or behavioral disorders, to seek services and treatment without being needlessly exposed to public scrutiny, as it is clearly to society's advantage to encourage people experiencing such problems to obtain assistance.
Here, plaintiff has not demonstrated that she has a compelling need for the discovery that outweighs the constitutional privacy rights of these non-party psychiatric patients. The hospital may be exposed to liability regardless of whether the alleged acts were performed by patients or other hospital workers, even without the names and faces of the alleged assailants. Even assuming the names are withheld, the photos may lead to inadvertent discovery of the patients' identities. Absent demonstrating such a need, the privacy rights of the non-party patients must prevail. See Delta Health Group, Inc. v. Williams, 780 So.2d 337 (Fla. 5th DCA 2001); Community Psychiatric Centers of Florida, Inc. v. Bevelacqua, 673 So.2d 948 (Fla. 4th DCA 1996)(concluding that although identities of patients who witnessed an accident at the defendant psychiatric facility might be relevant to rebut defendant's contention that plaintiff contributed to the accident by his own negligence, the plaintiffs need for the information would not outweigh the right of privacy of the nonparty patients).
It is not enough to argue that plaintiff may be prohibited from using the photos in any suit against the patients or may be prevented from disclosing the photos to parties other than counsel. An in camera (i.e. by a judge) inspection cannot satisfy the claimant's needs as only she can identify her assailant. When the hospital case is tried, the court clerk assigned to the proceeding as well as the court reporter will certainly recognize prominent patients by reason of wealth, social position or other status, if there are any. A substantial number of persons have been and are being protected by the patient privilege and receive proper treatment enabling them to perform satisfactorily in society directly because of the protection outlined. The possible collateral consequences of revealing the photographs of these patients may well strike the heart of some individual as we have attempted to describe.
Accordingly, we grant the petition sought and quash the order under review without prejudice to renew, in the event claimant's counsel is able to formulate and craft a test that will satisfy society's concerns. As a threshold matter, before the court allows such discovery, however, the court should be satisfied that the claimant is competent to testify as to what occwred at the time of the incidents. While she is presumed competent to testify unless adjudicated otherwise, the circumstances of her confinement and treatment may have rendered her unable to do so. There is no point in proceeding with this delicate discovery if her recollection of the events at issue is of no evidentiary value. Once overcoming this hurdle, it will, of course, boil down to the assessment of weight and credibility by trier of fact at trial.
LEVY, J., concurs.