§ 8.01-225.01.Certain immunity for health care providers during disasters under specific circumstances.
Chapter 3. Actions · Article 21. Miscellaneous Provisions · Last amended 2022 · Last verified July 16, 2026
In one sentenceSection 8.01-225.01 immunizes health care providers from civil liability for abandonment when a declared disaster or public health emergency forces them to redirect care elsewhere, and separately immunizes hospitals and similar entities for good-faith emergency credentialing of providers during such an emergency, absent gross negligence or willful misconduct.
A.In the absence of gross negligence or willful misconduct, any health care provider who responds to a disaster by delivering health care to persons injured in such disaster or who commits any act or omission as directed by any
order of public health in response to such disaster shall be immune from civil liability for any injury or wrongful death arising from abandonment by such health care provider of any person to whom such health care provider owes a duty to provide health care when (i) a local emergency, state of emergency, or public health emergency has been or is subsequently declared and (ii) the provider was unable to provide the requisite health care to the person to whom he owed such duty of care as a result of the provider's voluntary or mandatory response to the relevant disaster, order of public health, resource shortage, or other condition arising out of the disaster.
B.In the absence of gross negligence or willful misconduct, any hospital or other entity credentialing health care providers to deliver health care in response to a disaster shall be immune from civil liability for any cause of action arising out of such credentialing or granting of practice privileges if (i) a state or local emergency has been or is subsequently declared and (ii) the hospital has followed procedures for such credentialing and granting of practice privileges that are consistent with the applicable standards of an approved national accrediting organization for granting emergency practice privileges.
"Approved national accrediting organization" means an organization granted authority by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to ensure compliance with Medicare conditions of participation pursuant to § 1865 of Title XVIII of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. § 1395bb).
"Communicable disease of public health threat" has the same definition as provided in § 44-146.16.
"Disaster" means any "disaster," "emergency," or "major disaster" as those terms are used and defined in § 44- 146.16.
"Health care provider" has the same definition as provided in § 8.01-581.1.
"Local emergency" has the same definition as provided in § 44-146.16.
"Public health emergency" means the condition declared by the State Commissioner of Health when, in his judgment, the threat or actual occurrence of a disaster due to a communicable disease of public health threat in any part of the Commonwealth is of sufficient severity and magnitude to warrant public health orders and other measures aimed at preventing or alleviating the damage, loss, hardship, or suffering threatened or caused thereby and is so declared by him.
"Resource shortage" has the same definition as provided in § 44-146.16.
"State of emergency" has the same definition as provided in § 44-146.16.
D.The immunity provided by this section shall be in addition to, and shall not be in lieu of, any immunities provided in other state or federal law, including, but not limited to, §§ 8.01-225 and 44-146.23.
Plain-English Summary
Health care providers ordinarily owe an ongoing duty to patients already under their care, and walking away from that duty can expose them to an abandonment claim. Subsection A addresses what happens when a declared disaster forces a provider’s hand: if a local emergency, state of emergency, or public health emergency has been declared, and the provider becomes unable to keep providing care to a patient because the provider is responding to that disaster, a public-health order, or a resulting resource shortage, the provider is immune from civil liability for abandonment-related injury or wrongful death, as long as the provider was not grossly negligent or engaged in willful misconduct.
Subsection B protects a different actor: hospitals and other entities that grant emergency credentials or practice privileges to providers responding to a disaster. If a state or local emergency has been declared and the hospital followed credentialing procedures consistent with an approved national accrediting organization’s standards for emergency privileges, the hospital is immune from civil liability arising from that credentialing decision, again absent gross negligence or willful misconduct.
Subsection C defines the key terms — disaster, emergency, public health emergency, resource shortage, and the rest — mostly by cross-reference to Virginia’s Emergency Services and Disaster Law, § 44-146.16. Subsection D confirms this immunity supplements, rather than replaces, other immunities under state or federal law, including the broader emergency-care immunity in § 8.01-225.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a doctor be sued for abandoning a patient during a declared emergency?
Not if the abandonment resulted from the doctor’s response to the disaster, a public-health order, or a resource shortage caused by it, and the doctor was not grossly negligent or engaged in willful misconduct — subsection A immunizes that situation.
What has to be declared before this immunity applies?
A local emergency, state of emergency, or public health emergency, as those terms are defined by cross-reference to § 44-146.16 and, for public health emergency, this section itself.
Are hospitals protected for credentialing outside doctors during a disaster response?
Yes, if a state or local emergency has been declared and the hospital’s credentialing process for granting emergency practice privileges follows the standards of an approved national accrediting organization, subsection B immunizes the hospital from liability tied to that credentialing decision.
Does this immunity apply if the health care provider was grossly negligent?
No. Both subsections A and B condition the immunity on the absence of gross negligence or willful misconduct.
Does this section replace other emergency immunity protections, like the Good Samaritan statute?
No. Subsection D makes clear the immunity here is in addition to other state and federal immunities, including § 8.01-225 and Virginia’s Emergency Services and Disaster Law immunity under § 44-146.23.
Amendment History
2003, c. 507; 2008, cc. 121, 157; 2014, c. 320; 2022, c. 617.
Source & verification. Section text and amendment history are
reproduced verbatim from the Code of Virginia, published by the
Code of Virginia, Virginia Division of Legislative Automated Systems. Last verified July 16, 2026.
· Official source
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