Pennsylvania Hospitals in two counties will no longer conduct blood test on drunk driving cases.  The reason?  Well one blogger points out that apparently challenges to the hospital’s procedures by DUI Defense Attorneys made the hospital fearful that they would lose their scientific accreditation.

Hospital explains ban on DUI tests

The Times reported Wednesday that WellSpan affiliated hospitals in Adams and York counties have either discontinued conducting blood alcohol content (BAC) tests for police, or will be discontinuing.

Police said Gettysburg Hospital will continue to draw the blood samples, but will not test them. The blood would be placed in test kits to enable police to send the sample to another laboratory of their choice, most likely by Fed-Ex.

Lavery stated there were two fundamental reasons for the discontinuation of the service, the first concerning accreditation of the hospital’s laboratory and the second relating to increased demands on the laboratory.

Regarding accreditation, he said, “In our case, the hospital laboratory is unable to meet a new testing regulation introduced by the College of American Pathologists. They generate standards and they are our primary accreditation agency.”

“If we were to lose accreditation by not adhering to their regulations, we’d really jeopardize the lab’s primary role of providing health care to our patients,” Lavery said.

The story behind the change in hospital policy is interesting and originally covered in depth at The Minnesota DWI Defense Blog. As reported by the Minnesota DWI Defense Blog, Attorney Justin McShane had regularly obtained court orders which placed the hospital labs under great scrutiny and drained significant resources. The scrutiny jeopardized the hospitals’ lab accreditation with scientific organizations when McShane exposed the unscientific methods. The loss of accreditation would have been extremely costly to the hospitals. In the end, rather than risk the loss of their accreditation under further intense scrutiny and exposure, the hospitals and clinics have informed police they will not longer analyze the blood samples.

In addition, the legal system, particularly DUI defense attorneys, are demanding more and more from laboratories that conduct BAC testing.

“Attorneys are mandating that a clinical (hospital) lab be able to demonstrate forensic abilities, to respond to documents, provide staff competency documentation…those are things a forensic lab is more equipped to handle,” he stated.

Yes, we can imagine how asking for documentation to back up a “scientific test” must be highly burdensome to a scientific lab.

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