Coe v. Superior Court

In Coe v. Superior Court (1990) 220 Cal. App. 3d 48, the issue was whether a blood bank was a "health care provider" under Civil Code section 3333.2. (Coe, supra, 220 Cal. App. 3d at p. 49.) Irwin Memorial Blood Bank held two licenses, one under division 2 of the Business and Professions Code as a clinical laboratory, and one under division 2 of the Health and Safety Code as a blood bank. (Coe, supra, at pp. 50-51.) Turning to the definition of "blood bank" which is defined in Health and Safety Code section 1600.2 as " 'any place where human whole blood, and human whole blood derivatives specified by regulation, are collected, prepared, tested, processed, or stored, or from which human whole blood or human whole blood derivatives specified by regulation are distributed' " (Coe, supra, at p. 53, fn. 4), the Coe court found that the term "health dispensary" includes blood banks, since a blood bank "dispenses a product and provides a service inextricably identified with the health of humans. " (Id. at p. 53.) The Coe court reasoned that because blood is so vital to human health, the legislative purpose in enacting MICRA, to assure health care was available to the "medically indigent" and "the economically marginal," would be served by including a blood bank within the ambit of the MICRA protections. (Id. at p. 53, fn. 5.)