How have courts treated disclosure of confidential information in a medical malpractice case?

Mavroudis v. Superior Court (1980) 102 Cal.App.3d 594, 162 Cal.Rptr. 724, concerned discovery in a civil suit alleging failure to warn. The court held that if the preliminary facts required by section 1024 were present at the time of the injury, the claim of privilege fails, even though by time of trial it was too late to prevent the danger. The court then established a procedure for in camera review of the psychiatric records to determine what should have been disclosed, and thus is subject to discovery. Nothing in that case suggests that the plaintiff was entitled to discover confidential communications whose disclosure was never necessary to prevent danger.