Opinion ID: 894924
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Waiver of Objections

Text: Under section 74.351(a), [e]ach defendant physician or health care provider whose conduct is implicated in a report must file and serve any objection to the sufficiency of the report not later than the 21st day after the date it was served, failing which all objections are waived.  TEX. CIV. PRA C. & REM.CODE § 74.351(a) (emphasis added). The hospital admits that it did not object to the report within the twenty-one days allowed by statute but claims it had no duty to do so because, in effect, no report had been served due to the absence of a physician's opinion on causation. See TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM.CODE § 74.351(r)(6). But the nurses' reports served on Heart Hospital are directed explicitly to the hospital and clearly implicate its conduct. Both parties now agree that the nurses' reports were sufficient as to the standard of care and breach of that standard at the hospital. And as the court of appeals noted, the hospital's motion to dismiss contested the sufficiency of those reportsthe motion claimed that the reports did not explain: 1. the applicable standard of care; 2. how the hospital breached the standard of care; 3. how any breach harmed Mr. Matthews; and 4. that the nurses were not qualified to render an opinion as to causation under the statute. These objections are directed to the reports' sufficiency, and they could have been urged within the statutory twenty-one day period, as the statute clearly requires. TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM.CODE § 74.351(a) (requiring each health care provider whose conduct is implicated in a report to serve  any objection to the sufficiency of the report not later than the 21st day after the date it was served, failing which all objections are waived ) (emphasis added). Because the hospital did not object within the twenty-one day period, its objections were waived, and the trial court correctly denied its motion to dismiss.