Pomona Valley Hosp. Med. Ctr. v. Superior Court of L.A. Cty.

Petitioner, Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center (hereafter Pomona Valley) seeks a writ of mandate directing the superior court to set aside its order granting the motion of real party, Dr. Paul Bressman, to take the deposition of Dr. Frederick Knudsen and to augment the record with his testimony.

I. Factual and Procedural History

When Bressman joined Pomona Valley’s medical staff in 1983, he was a member of the Hauch Medical Clinic (Hauch), and was the only surgeon providing vascular surgical care for the patients of that group.

In 1990, Knudsen was president of the Pomona Valley medical staff and a vascular surgeon. On April 24, 1990, Knudsen suspended Bressman’s privileges to practice medicine at Pomona Valley. Bressman requested and received a full medical staff executive committee (MEC) review. The MEC upheld the suspension, and determined that an investigation of Bressman’s performance at the hospital should be conducted by an ad hoc investigative committee in order to make a recommendation regarding Bressman’s then pending 1990 medical staff reappointment application. The investigative committee recommended that Bressman’s reappointment application be denied.…