Sexual Assault Medical Forensic Examinations
Alerting examiners
Alert examiners of the need for their services. The SART, if one exists, can work with exam facilities to identify acceptable timeframes to conduct a medical forensic exam after a patient’s arrival and medical evaluation, management, and stabilization. If examiners are not based at the site or need to be dispatched, the facility should contact them immediately after identifying a sexual assault patient.[1] Examiners are often required to arrive at the exam site within a certain period of time (e.g., 30 minutes) after being dispatched.[1] It is possible that examiners could also be dispatched by first responders at the crime scene or by health care staff after being alerted that a sexual assault patient will be arriving at their facility. Although activating examiners as early as possible seems like it would benefit these patients, such a procedure can potentially cause confusion. For example, after activating an examiner to go to a particular exam facility, there may be significant delays in getting the patient to the site or changes en route to the facility patients. Sexually assaulted individuals may also change their minds about care or evidence collection.
