What Is a ''Medical Peer Review'' In Texas ?

"Medical peer review" means "the evaluation of medical and health care services, including evaluation . . . of patient care provided by" professional health care practitioners. TEX. OCC. CODE ANN. 151.002(7). The term includes evaluation of the accuracy of a diagnosis, the quality of the care provided by a health care practitioner, and any report to a medical peer review committee concerning activities under the committee's review authority. Id. 151.002(7)(B)-(D). Under article 4590i, section 1.03(a)(2), "'health care' means any act or treatment performed or furnished, or which should have been performed or furnished, by any health care provider for, to, or on behalf of a patient during the patient's medical care, treatment, or confinement." TEX. REV. CIV. STAT. ANN. art. 4509i, 1.03(a)(2) (Vernon Supp. 2000). The term "medical care" means any act "performed or furnished, or which should have been performed, by one licensed to practice medicine in Texas for, to, or on behalf of a patient during the patient's care, treatment, or confinement." Id. 1.03(a)(6). The peer review privilege does not protect records "made or maintained in the regular course of business." TEX. HEALTH & SAFETY CODE ANN. 161.032(c). For the purposes of peer review analysis, "records made or maintained in the regular course of business" means "records kept in connection with the treatment of a hospital's individual patients as well as the business and administrative files and papers apart from committee deliberations." McCown, 927 S.W.2d at 10 (quoting Texarkana Mem'l Hosp., Inc. v. Jones, 551 S.W.2d 33, 35 (Tex. 1977) (orig. proceeding)).