Tennessee Medical Foundation (TMF)
Physician's Health Program (PHP)

Confidentiality

The TMF takes great care to ensure that, as with any health care related endeavor, the names, addresses, and case information related to its participating physicians remain strictly confidential. This policy of confidentiality protects the public by encouraging physicians who need our help to feel free to contact us with the knowledge that their request for assistance will be professionally addressed with the privacy that any other health care patient would expect who sought medical care from a physician, hospital or nursing home.


Tennessee's Peer Review Law of 1967

In 1967, the Tennessee General Assembly passed a statute to encourage committees of physicians to vigorously review the work and quality of care that their peers were providing across the state. The legislature recognized that the only way to accomplish genuine peer review would be to make sure that the oversight efforts were done in a confidential atmosphere. The statute, T.C.A. §63-6-219, provides that information generated in the peer review process (which is unavailable elsewhere) is privileged from subpoena and strictly confidential.

The legislature made its intent clear with the passage of the Peer Review Law:
"(I)t is the stated policy of Tennessee to encourage committees made up of Tennessee's licensed physicians to candidly, conscientiously, and objectively evaluate and review their peers' professional conduct, competence, and ability to practice medicine." [219(a)]