Lewin

The ultimate question presented by this case is whether the governing board of a “private” nonprofit hospital corporation may validly make a policy decision, based on its reasonable judgment that it is in the best interests of good patient care and sound administration of the hospital, to operate the hospital’s chronic renal hemodialysis facility on a “closed-staff” basis (i.e., by arranging for exclusive use and practical administration of the facility with a single group of nephrologists associated together in their practice of medicine and who devote all but an insubstantial proportion of their professional endeavors to the practice of nephrology at the hospital) or whether the hospital is compelled by law to operate that facility on an “open-staff” basis (i.e., permitting all qualified physicians to use the facility, each performing dialysis on his own patients), the judgment of its governing board to the contrary notwithstanding.

The trial court granted the petition of Dr. Laurence Lewin for a peremptory writ of mandate commanding St. Joseph Hospital of Orange (hereafter hospital or St. Joseph), in effect, to operate its chronic hemodialysis facility on an…