Opinion ID: 1345786
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: admissibility of laboratory test results

Text: At the time of trial, Dr. Bishop was unavailable to testify. The State called Dr. Gerrish, Dr. Bishop's partner at Snohomish Family Medical Center. The doctors maintained common medical files for patients of the partnership. Dr. Gerrish testified that he had examined J in May 1983 and diagnosed her as having vaginitis. Thereafter Dr. Bishop served as the child's treating physician. Using the common medical file, Dr. Gerrish testified regarding Dr. Bishop's examinations of J. The medical record indicated that on November 16, 1984, Dr. Bishop diagnosed J as having vaginitis. A vaginal smear was taken, and a gonorrhea culture was prepared. The gonorrhea culture was analyzed by Dr. Bishop in his office, and the vaginal smear was transferred to a prepared slide and sent to Cooperative Medical Laboratory to be analyzed for Chlamydia. Laying a foundation for the admission of the test results from the lab, Dr. Gerrish testified that his clinic consistently used the lab, that the clinic routinely relied upon test results obtained from the lab, and he explained the lab's method of testing for Chlamydia. Dr. Gerrish testified that the lab found that J tested positive for Chlamydia. The medical record indicated that Dr. Bishop took a second smear for Chlamydia testing during a February 1985 examination of the child. Dr. Gerrish testified that the latest lab report was negative as to Chlamydia. Following Dr. Gerrish's testimony, the State moved to admit the lab reports into evidence under the UBRA, RCW 5.45.020, and State v. Sellers, 39 Wn. App. 799, 695 P.2d 1014, review denied, 103 Wn.2d 1036 (1985). Defense counsel objected on the grounds that the reports did not fall under the business records exception to the hearsay rule and that no one from Cooperative Medical Laboratory testified regarding the lab's testing procedures and handling of the particular slide. The trial court, noting that Dr. Gerrish was familiar with the lab and his clinic regularly relied upon the lab's work when treating patients, admitted the lab reports into evidence. On appeal, Ziegler asserts that the trial court erred in permitting Dr. Gerrish to testify regarding the Chlamydia test results and in admitting the reports into evidence as part of the business records of Snohomish Family Medical Center. According to Ziegler, the lab reports constitute the business records of Cooperative Medical Laboratory, and the State failed to lay a proper foundation for their admission. We reject defendant's contentions. [1, 2] The UBRA, RCW 5.45.020, [1] makes evidence that would otherwise be hearsay competent testimony. The UBRA contemplates that business records are presumptively reliable if made in the regular course of business and there was no apparent motive to falsify. State v. Rutherford, 66 Wn.2d 851, 405 P.2d 719 (1965), appeal dismissed, cert. denied, 384 U.S. 267 (1966). The UBRA contains five requirements for admissibility designed to ensure reliability. To be admissible in evidence a business record must (1) be in record form, (2) be of an act, condition or event, (3) be made in the regular course of business, (4) be made at or near the time of the act, condition or event, and (5) the court must be satisfied that the sources of information, method, and time of preparation justify the admittance of the evidence. State v. Kreck, 86 Wn.2d 112, 118-19, 542 P.2d 782 (1975); Tennant v. Roys, 44 Wn. App. 305, 312, 722 P.2d 848 (1986). Discussing the application of the UBRA to medical records, this court stated As applied to hospital records, compliance with the act obviates the necessity, expense, inconvenience, and sometimes impossibility of calling as witnesses the attendants, nurses, physicians, X ray technicians, laboratory and other hospital employees who collaborated to make the hospital record of the patient. It is not necessary to examine the person who actually created the record so long as it is produced by one who has the custody of the record as a regular part of his work or has supervision of its creation. (Citation omitted.) Cantrill v. American Mail Line, Ltd., 42 Wn.2d 590, 608, 257 P.2d 179 (1953). The trial judge's decision to admit or exclude business records is given great weight and will not be reversed unless there has been a manifest abuse of discretion. Cantrill, 42 Wn.2d at 608; State v. Barringer, 32 Wn. App. 882, 885, 650 P.2d 1129 (1982). The trial court did not err in finding that the lab reports met the requirements for admissibility under the UBRA. A practicing physician's records, made in the regular course of business, properly identified and otherwise relevant, constitute competent evidence of a condition therein recorded. State v. Sellers, 39 Wn. App. 799, 806, 695 P.2d 1014, review denied, 103 Wn.2d 1036 (1985). The facts in Sellers are nearly identical to those of the present case. In Sellers, a person was shot but no body was found. Sellers, 39 Wn. App. at 800. The police suspected that the defendant had killed his wife and charged him with second degree murder. The police obtained a bloodstained shirt worn by the defendant on the day of the shooting. Sellers, 39 Wn. App. at 801. The blood type of defendant's wife matched that of the blood found on the defendant's shirt. Sellers, 39 Wn. App. at 805-06. The defendant was convicted of second degree murder. Appealing his conviction, the defendant asserted that the trial court erred in admitting a lab report of his wife's blood type, contained in her physician's records, without testimony of a supervisor or the individual who performed the blood test. The Court of Appeals rejected the defendant's claim, stating We find no merit in Sellers' next contention, that a lab report showing Pamela's blood type was inadmissible because neither the technician who had done the tests nor his supervisor was called to authenticate it. The report was part of her physician's file and was identified by him. It was admitted as a business record under RCW 5.45.020. The statute does not require that the record be made by the person performing the lab test, but only that it was made in the regular course of business under circumstances which the court finds makes it trustworthy. A practicing physician's records, made in the regular course of business, properly identified and otherwise relevant, constitute competent evidence of a condition therein recorded. The blood tests were requested and used by Pamela's physician in his treatment of her for two pregnancies and other health matters during her 8 years as his patient. This is very convincing evidence of their trustworthiness. The report was properly admitted. (Footnote and citations omitted. Italics ours.) Sellers, 39 Wn. App. at 806-07. We hold that Sellers controls. Similar to the situation in Sellers, J's treating physician ordered the Chlamydia tests and relied upon the test results in his treatment of the child. The record was in the custody of Snohomish Family Medical Center as part of J's medical file. Dr. Gerrish testified regarding his familiarity with the laboratory and its testing procedures. The trial court found the test results admissible as business records because of Dr. Gerrish's knowledge of the lab's operations and his clinic's reliance upon the lab's test results in treating patients. We hold that the trial court did not err in admitting the lab reports as part of the business records of Snohomish Family Medical Center.