§ 8.01-413.02.Admissibility of written reports or records of blood alcohol tests conducted in the regular course of providing emergency medical treatment.

Blood alcohol readings taken by hospital staff while treating an injured patient can matter enormously in the civil case that follows, whether it involves a car crash, a workplace injury, or another incident. Section 8.01-413.02 clears two of the biggest obstacles to using that evidence: the hearsay rule and medical confidentiality.

On the hearsay side, the section makes written reports or records of blood alcohol tests conducted on people receiving emergency hospital or emergency room treatment admissible as a business-records exception, regardless of what other law might otherwise say. That means the reports come in as reliable business documentation of the testing, without requiring the testing technician to testify to lay a live foundation each time.

On the confidentiality side, the section removes medical-privacy law as a bar to disclosure of these specific reports, so long as the disclosure follows the federal patient-privacy regulations the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has adopted — no separate patient consent or authorization is required for that evidentiary use. And to make sure no one hesitates to draw blood or share the results out of liability fear, the section grants civil immunity: nobody involved in drawing the blood or conducting the test faces civil damages for breach of confidentiality or unauthorized release tied to this evidentiary use, and the same immunity covers testimony given under this section.