Malpractice in the '80s -- what lies ahead, what can be done

To weather the stormy malpractice environment that lies ahead, hospital medical staffs will need to cooperate more actively with risk management and quality assurance programs than they have in the past. One barrier to more active physician cooperation has been fear that the confidentiality of medical staff committee findings will be breached. This article describes how the California Medical Association and the California Hospital Association worked to promote an organized approach to quality assurance built around legislation that removes quality assurance data and records from legal discovery.