About

About Joanne P. Hopkins

Joanne limits her legal practice to serving as an independent presiding/hearing officer and mediator for medical staff privileging disputes.

Joanne has spent her entire legal career in health law and has been board-certified in Health Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization since 2005. For over 30 years, her practice has focused on the relationship between the medical staff and hospitals and other health care entities and she has represented clients in numerous medical staff hearings and mediations. She has also served as an independent presiding/hearing officer for hearings and mediator for medical staff privileging disputes.

Due to the nature of her practice, Joanne has in-depth knowledge of the procedural due process obligations of hospitals and health care entities to applicants to and members of the medical staff, medical peer review confidentiality and its limitations, and mandatory reporting to the National Practitioner Data Bank (and licensing agencies) of certain professional review actions. These issues significantly impact on medical staff hearings and the options in mediation, and provide her with additional expertise when serving as an independent presiding/hearing officer and mediator. She is also very familiar with operational and regulatory health care issues due to the nature of her legal practice and her nursing background.

Joanne is a former Chair of the Health Law Section of the State Bar of Texas and former Chair of the Texas Board of Legal Specialization’s Health Law Exam Commission. She also served for 24 years as Vice Chair of the Texas Medical Disclosure Panel, the state committee on informed consent standards.