Opinion ID: 1286646
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Violation of Physician-Patient Privilege

Text: Plaintiffs contend that the trial court erred by admitting testimony from Dr. Russel Orr, who was treating Mrs. Wheeldon at the time of trial. We conclude that the trial court properly denied plaintiffs' motion to bar Dr. Orr's testimony. Mrs. Wheeldon first contacted Dr. Orr, a board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist, after the September 8 stillborn delivery. Mrs. Wheeldon remained in Dr. Orr's care at the time defendants called him to testify as an expert witness at trial. On direct examination by defendants, Dr. Orr was asked to render an opinion on the standard of care exercised by Dr. Madison respecting his treatment of Mrs. Wheeldon. Dr. Orr's opinion was restricted solely to the medical and hospital records previously received into evidence. The fact that Mrs. Wheeldon was then under Dr. Orr's care was not revealed during defendants' direct examination. Nor was Dr. Orr asked by the defendants to testify to any matters confided to him by Mrs. Wheeldon or to any information obtained by him from her during the course of treatment. The physician-patient privilege has no common law basis. 2 Weinstein's Evidence § 504[01] at 504-8. The privilege is created and controlled by statute or court rule. In South Dakota, the physician-patient privilege is set forth in SDCL 19-13-7, one of our court-adopted rules of evidence. SDCL 19-13-7 provides: A patient has a privilege to refuse to disclose and to prevent any other person from disclosing confidential communications made for the purpose of diagnosis or treatment of his physical, mental or emotional condition, including alcohol or drug addiction, among himself, physician or psychotherapist, and persons who are participating in the diagnosis or treatment under the direction of the physician or psychotherapist, including members of the patient's family. SDCL 19-13-6(4) defines confidential as: A communication is confidential if not intended to be disclosed to third persons, except persons present to further the interest of patient in the consultation, examination, or interview, persons reasonably necessary for the transmission of the communication, or persons who are participating in the diagnosis and treatment under the direction of the physician or psychotherapist, including members of the patient's family. The intent of this rule is clear. Only confidential communications between a physician and his patient are protected under the statute. As noted above, defendants on direct examination did not attempt to elicit any information from Dr. Orr that was related to his treatment of Mrs. Wheeldon. Plaintiffs argue that our decision in Hogue v. Massa, 80 S.D. 319, 123 N.W.2d 131 (1963), compels a different result. We disagree. In Hogue the defendant-physicians sought to depose the physician who had taken over plaintiff's care from defendants. Defendants' objective was to obtain information concerning the subsequent treating physician's care of plaintiff. We held that this information was protected under the physician-patient privilege as then defined by SDC 1960 Supp. 36.0101(3): A physician or surgeon, or other regular practitioner of the art, cannot, without the consent of his patient, be examined in a civil action as to any information acquired in attending the patient which was necessary to enable him to prescribe or act for the patient. SDC 1960 Supp. 36.0101(3), as amended in 1979, is now found at SDCL 19-2-3, which reads: In any action or proceeding or quasi-judicial administrative proceedings, whenever the physical or mental health of any person is in issue, any privilege under § 19-13-7 shall conclusively be deemed to be waived at trial or for the purpose of discovery under chapter 15-6 if such action or proceeding is civil in nature; and such privilege shall also conclusively be deemed to be waived at trial or for any purpose provided by chapter 23A-12 or 23A-13 if such action or proceeding is criminal in nature. As can readily be seen, SDCL 19-2-3 is more restrictive than its predecessor. Additionally, Hogue is distinguishable from the instant case inasmuch as the defendants in Hogue sought information from plaintiff's physician pertaining to his treatment of the plaintiff. Here, Dr. Orr's opinion was restricted to an interpretation of the medical and hospital records already in evidence and did not embrace information concerning his care and treatment of Mrs. Wheeldon. Therefore, the physician-patient privilege created by SDCL 19-13-7 was inapplicable.