Arnett

Evidence Code section 1157 provides that the records of a hospital peer review committee are not “subject to discovery.” We address *7 here the narrow issue whether an investigative subpoena issued by the Medical Board of California as part of its inquiry into the conduct of a physician with an apparent drug problem is “discovery” within the meaning of that statute. The trial court ruled that it is not and ordered compliance with the subpoena, and the Court of Appeal held to the same effect. We agree with those rulings, and therefore affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeal.

The Medical Board of California

The state has long regulated the practice of medicine as an exercise of the police power. (See, e.g., Stats. 1876, ch. 518, p. 792 [“An Act to Regulate the Practice of Medicine in California”]; Stats. 1913, ch. 354, p. 722 [same]; Stats. 1937, ch. 399, p. 1254 [codifying Medical Practice Act as Bus. & Prof. Code, § 2000 et seq.].) A key instrument of that regulation has been the statewide agency authorized to license and discipline medical practitioners, successively known as the Board of Medical Examiners, the Board of Medical Quality Assurance, and now the Medical…