Court Opinion

ID: 9699266
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 20:17:24.629619+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:48.309275
License: Public Domain

WIEAND, Judge,
concurring:
I concur in the result. Although there may well be members of the peer review process, including the Delaware Valley Medical Center itself, who will eventually be entitled to summary judgment, the trial court’s present order is premature. Therefore, I agree that the case must be remanded for further proceedings.
In doing so, I find it unnecessary to advance an all-inclusive definition of “malice” as that term has been used in the Peer *26Review Protection Act of July 20, 1974, P.L. 564, as amended, 63 P.S. § 425.1 et seq. I also find it unnecessary, for purposes of deciding the present appeal, to hold that the Peer Review Protection Act provides no protection for hospitals which have installed and relied upon the peer review process. It is enough that on the record now before this Court it cannot be determined as a matter of law that one or more of the named defendants did not act to preserve the “turf” of Dr. Amster rather than in the best interests of the hospital and its patients.