2013 Wanted for Family Violence El Paso Times
Aileen B. Flores
Officials with the Center Against Sexual and Family Violence said Del Sol Medical Center is denying rape kits to sexual assault victims because it has not provided state-mandated preparation to nurses responsible for administering the exams.
Representatives for the hospital said they are not shirking their responsibleness to collect sexual set on evidence from victims. They say that their nurses are trained and that they are simply providing victims with the selection of going to hospitals that are meliorate equipped to work with patients who accept been sexually assaulted.
Virginia Rueda, sexual assail services coordinator for the Center Against Sexual and Family Violence, said the nonprofit has received complaints from about 15 sexual attack victims who say that they were turned away while seeking a rape kit exam from Del Sol Medical Center.
Rueda said that, in one case, a law officer was willing pick up a rape kit from some other hospital and then that an declared rape victim at Del Sol could be tested, but medical staff declined his offer.
"The victims go to the infirmary, become admitted into the ER to get checked, and when it comes down to doing the actual exam, they are told that the nurses are not trained or that they don't have the rape kit test, a forensic exam," Rueda said. The victims "are told to go to another hospital, to UMC or to Sierra, and they are discharged."
The Hospitals of Providence Sierra Campus and University Medical Center of El Paso are the only two hospitals in the city that are considered expert facilities to treat rape victims because their nurses attend yearlong grooming to receive certification as Sexual Assail Nurse Examiners.
Simply state law mandates that all hospitals with emergency rooms provide basic grooming for nurses to administrate a rape kit, which is a sexual set on forensic exam that is provided to police force enforcement.
Cindy Stout, the chief nursing officer at Del Sol Medical Center, said in a argument that the hospital is complying with country police.
"The hospital has access to rape kits at all times. While health-intendance professionals concord it is preferable for a SANE nurse to comport a sexual assault exam, we have nurses trained in evidence collection, in compliance with Texas law," Stout said.
Stout said that when sexual attack victims get in at the hospital, staff first treats any emergency condition and then notifies the victim that Del Sol Medical Center is not a SANE designated facility. She said the patient is encouraged to go to a SANE designated hospital because of the level of expertise they provide, but can cull to stay at Del Sol.
"If a patient is not medically stable such that a transfer to a SANE-designated medical eye is non in the patient'southward all-time involvement or if a patient would adopt to stay at Del Sol Medical Center, we have the ability to meet the patient'due south needs on site, including performing the sexual attack test," Stout said.
El Paso County, which has a population of more than than 835,000 people, has only viii nurses who are certified equally Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners, according to Gloria Salazar, who manages the SANE programme at UMC. Because the nurses cannot work with every sexual assault victim, Salazar said they have offered to train other nurses in the community to comport the rape kit exams.
The four-hour preparation allows hospitals to collect show through the tests and comply with state law, Salazar said.
Salazar said La Palmas Medical Heart was receptive to the training, simply its sis infirmary, Del Sol Medical Heart, has non approached her or her grouping to provide training for its nurses.
"We are going to push button Del Sol side by side, the (master nurse officer) from Del Sol to run into if she is receptive enough in offer the preparation to their nurses," Salazar said.
In her statement, Stout said Del Sol Medical Center "provides ongoing pedagogy and grooming for staff" to come across the need of sexual assault victims.
Stephanie Karr, executive director of the Heart Against Sexual and Family unit Violence, said the nonprofit wants to piece of work with Del Sol to make sure that the hospital provides grooming for staff to collect DNA testify for the rape kits.
Such training was mandated in a 2013 Texas police force meant to meliorate access to forensic examinations for survivors of sexual assault. Penalties are not outlined for hospitals that don't comply, but options could include filing a complaint with the state, Karr said.
Still, Karr said, "the most favorable selection is to continue to work with Del Sol so that nosotros resolve this at a community level."
The El Paso Times interviewed the family of a woman who was admitted to Del Sol Medical Center on July 26. The interview, which was arranged by the Center Against Sexual and Family Violence, was conducted on the condition that the paper not inquire specifics about the declared sexual assault.
The El Paso Times does not place possible victims of sexual assault or their relatives.
A relative of the adult female, who died this twelvemonth, said hospital officials told the family that Del Sol was not a SANE designated facility and talked about transferring the patient to UMC. Simply the woman had other illnesses and the hospital could non release the patient because it posed a hazard to her wellness, the relative said.
"They started looking around to run across if somebody could practice it there at the hospital," the woman said. She added, "'You know, you tin can kind of see them whispering, nobody wanted to do it. And I'1000 thinking, that is ridiculous considering you get assaulted, you're raped and you go to the infirmary equally a safe oasis, for what? So they tin can transfer you? Accept you to some other hospital so that they can make you feel even more than humiliated?"
The relative said she believes at that place were nurses at the hospital who could have performed the exam but, after six hours, hospital staff decided confronting providing the exam, which must be conducted inside 96 hours of the assault.
"It did not happen that 24-hour interval. The 96 hours expired and the exam was never performed," she said.
Rueda, the sexual assault services coordinator for the Eye Against Family Violence, said that sending victims to other hospitals could make them miss the window for the exam or could discourage them from the process altogether.
"We know that most victims do non become to the hospital right abroad because there is an emotional procedure right subsequently that," Rueda said. She added that 15 victims sought help from the heart after being turned away from Del Sol but said, "we don't know most the other ones who decided to just go home."
Aileen B. Flores may be reached at 546-6362. aflores@elpasotimes.com. @AileenBFlores on Twitter.
Source: https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/local/community/2016/10/29/del-sol-accused-ignoring-state-law-rape-evidence/92903264/
0 Response to "2013 Wanted for Family Violence El Paso Times"
Post a Comment