Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling could favor doctors in defamation suit against Excela Health

Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that a lawyer for Excela Health waived attorney-client privilege when he turned over a confidential document to a private media relations firm hired to oversee publicity related to allegations that patients were subjected to unnecessary cardiac procedures.

Attorneys for doctors George Bousamra and Ehab Morcos want to review that document as part of their defamation lawsuit pending in Allegheny County against Excela, the Greensburg-based health care provider. The doctors contend their reputations were damaged when Excela publicly disclosed they were suspected of implanting cardiac stents into patients who did not need them.

The Supreme Court in a 30-page majority opinion said the hospital waived attorney-client privilege when Excela’s in-house lawyer forwarded via email a memo that discussed making the identity of the doctors public. The ruling, though, does not resolve the pretrial issue. Justices said the case should be returned to Allegheny County to allow a judge to determine if the email is considered the lawyer’s work product that could have been made public to a third-party or an adversary in the legal case.

Pittsburgh attorney Elizabeth Jenkins, who represents Bousamra and Morcos in the defamation lawsuit, could not be reached for comment.

Spokeswoman Robin Jennings said Excela doesn’t comment on pending litigation.

Allegations of improper stenting arose after Excela made public the results of internal reviews of patient records that initially determined as many as 141 patients of Bousamra and Morcos were subjected to unnecessary procedures.

That disclosure and a subsequent revelation of potentially more cases prompted more than 100 malpractice lawsuits being filed against the doctors and Excela. As of earlier this year, Westmoreland County court officials said most of the lawsuits have been settled and only 45 were still pending.

One case has gone to trial so far. A Westmoreland County jury in 2017 found in favor of Morcos and the hospital in a case brought by a North Huntingdon man who claimed he received stents he didn’t need in 2007. That verdict was upheld this year by the state’s Superior Court.