Sexual Assault Medical Forensic Examinations
The Medical Forensic History
Recommendations at a glance for health care providers to facilitate gathering information from patients:
- Examiners should coordinate with other responders, such as law enforcement representatives and advocates, to facilitate information gathering that is respectful to patients and minimizes repetition of questions.
- Advocates should be allowed to support and advocate for patients during the medical forensic history.
- Consider patients’ needs prior to gathering information for the history. Obtain information for the medical forensic history in a private and quiet setting.
- Ask patients routine questions for the history, including date/time of the assault, pertinent medical history, recent consensual sexual activity, activities since the assault, assault-related victim history, suspect information (if known), nature of the physical assault, and description of the sexual assault.
Go to the Next Section: The Medical Forensic History > Coordination of history taking and investigative interviewing
Download the full document: A National Protocol for Sexual Assault Medical Forensic Examinations (Adobe PDF)
