Serving patients in difficult circumstances

Photography by James Moore

Ozarks Healthcare Launches SANE Program to Provide Compassionate, Comprehensive Care for Victims of Sexual Violence

Recognizing the daunting challenges victims of sexual violence face in the aftermath of an attack, Ozarks Healthcare recently unveiled a new program featuring specially trained employees equipped to recognize and treat such cases.

Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANE) are personnel trained to identify symptoms and correctly treat sexual abuse, including providing medical treatment, gathering forensic evidence, administering tests and serving as a liaison between the victim and law enforcement.

Karlee Marvin, a registered nurse who is OZH’s emergency department manager and forensic program coordinator, said the new program helps employees manage these sensitive cases with compassion, expertise and professionalism.

“Our forensic team has been extensively trained to assist patients who have been in a bad situation,” she said. “We act as a patient’s advocate and as a resource for them.”

All five nurses who make up Marvin’s department completed the 40-hour SANE training course, as well as constructed various components of the hospital’s protocols for these cases. These included coordinating with IT to create secure electronic patient records and working out a staffing model to ensure SANE-educated personnel are always available.

“We schedule two RNs on call, 24/7,” she said. “Our team rotates, so we are available any time of the day or night, holidays, whatever it may be.”

The new program starts by ensuring incoming patients are medically safe first and then, depending on the patient’s wishes, continues with the collection of evidence. Throughout the process, the patient remains in control, retaining the final say over whether evidence is gathered or whether to report the incident to the police at all.

Those who do report to authorities can leverage SANE personnel to help fill out arrest reports and other paperwork. SANE-trained personnel are equipped to deal with cases involving infants through senior citizens and maintain close working partnerships with area law enforcement, the local division of Family Services and the child advocacy center in town. This network helps OzH connect the patient to other resources to help ensure their safety after leaving the hospital.

Perhaps most importantly, those agreeing to evidence collection can now do so more conveniently than before the program was launched.

“Prior to having the program in place, we were not able to walk a patient through reporting or collection of evidence,” Marvin said. “We were able to medically take care of them, but we then had to transport them to another medical facility for evidence collection, which was approximately 100 miles away. When you’re in that situation, the last thing you want to do is add another stop and have another person to talk to.”

Marvin said she’s proud to be able to offer such services at those times when patients need them most.

“We serve a wide area of eight counties, and this program means we can take care of patients here fully instead of them having to go out of town,” she said. “To be able to take care of all the patient’s needs during one of the most vulnerable times of their lives is huge for our hospital and for the community.”