Opinion ID: 2053900
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The third question asks:

Text: 3. Does the Privileged Communications Act, § 9-17-24, confer a legislatively granted privilege? If so, with whom does the privilege rest: the patient/defendant or the health-care provider? Section 9-17-24 confers a legislatively created privilege, the authority for which is constitutional and acknowledged in Rule 501 of the Rhode Island Rules of Evidence. See discussion supra question 1. The physician-patient statutes, though commonly phrased in terms of incompetency, are nevertheless held to create merely a privilege for the benefit of the patient. McCormick On Evidence § 103 at 383 & n. 1 (citing John H. Wigmore, Evidence In Trials At Common Law (John T. McNaughton rev. 1961)). The patient is the person    [who] is the holder of the privilege. Id. § 102 at 381.