68-10-116 - Exposure of law enforcement officer or employees of Tennessee bureau of investigation's crime laboratories to hepatitis B or HIV virus Testing of blood or body fluids. - Tennessee Statutes

68-10-116. Exposure of law enforcement officer or employees of Tennessee bureau of investigation's crime laboratories to hepatitis B or HIV virus Testing of blood or body fluids.

(a)  (1)  If, during the course of arresting, transporting or processing a person charged with the commission of a criminal offense, a law enforcement officer is exposed to the blood or other body fluid of the arrested person in any manner that presents a significant risk of transmission of the hepatitis B virus or the HIV/AIDS virus, then the exposed officer has the right to request that the arrested person's blood be tested for the presence of the hepatitis B virus and the HIV/AIDS virus.

     (2)  If, during the course of receiving, analyzing or transporting the blood or other body fluid of any person who has been arrested and charged with a criminal offense, an employee of any of the Tennessee bureau of investigation's crime laboratories is exposed to the blood or body fluid in any manner that presents a significant risk of transmission of the hepatitis B virus or the HIV/AIDS virus, then the exposed employee has the right to request that the arrested person's blood be tested for the presence of the hepatitis B virus and the HIV/AIDS virus.

(b)  Testing shall occur at a licensed health care facility, with the cost to be paid by the state, county or municipal subdivision that employs the law enforcement officer, or employee of the crime laboratory of the Tennessee bureau of investigation. Any person who, acting at the written request of a law enforcement officer, or employee of the crime laboratory of the Tennessee bureau of investigation, withdraws blood from a person for the purpose of making the test, shall not incur any civil or criminal liability as a result of the withdrawing of the blood, except for any damages that may result from the negligence of the person withdrawing the blood. Neither shall the hospital or licensed health care facility incur, except for negligence, any civil or criminal liability as a result of the act of withdrawing blood from any person. The results of the testing shall be confidential; provided, that the law enforcement officer, or employee of the crime laboratory of the Tennessee bureau of investigation, exposed to the blood or other body fluid shall have the right to request the results of the testing and the person providing the test results shall be immune from liability in the same manner as is provided in § 68-10-115.

[Acts 1994, ch. 914, § 1; 2005, ch. 17, §§ 1, 2.]