KFH

In this writ proceeding, we are called on to decide whether the failure of a hospital to begin a peer review hearing within the 60-day period provided by subdivision (h) of Business and Professions Code section 809.2 excuses the physician who is subject to peer review from completing the peer review process and permits the physician to bring an immediate tort action for damages and other relief in the superior court. We conclude the answer to that question is “no.” The hospital’s failure to begin the hearing on time, without more, does not render the administrative remedy of the peer review process inadequate or unavailable and does not constitute such a deprivation of “fair procedure” that the physician is entitled to escape peer review altogether.

We also conclude that a physician facing peer review cannot avoid the process by claiming that the hearing officer and/or panel members appointed by the hospital are impermissibly biased. Because subdivision (c) of section 809.2 provides a method for raising the issue of bias in the administrative proceeding, the exhaustion of administrative remedies doctrine requires the physician to raise the issue of bias before the…