The 'next big hub': Magic Valley looks to improve sexual assault victim services

Feb. 17--BOISE -- Recent years have brought a flurry of reforms to help police more effectively handle and analyze sexual assault kits. Now medical professionals, law enforcement and advocates across Idaho are turning their attention to what happens before those kits are sent to police stations.

Statewide efforts are underway to make the evidence-collection process a little easier for survivors of sexual assault, including new training to help law enforcement better understand victim trauma, legislation that would prevent hospitals from billing patients' health insurance for the cost of a sexual assault kit and attempts to increase the number of nurses trained to collect and handle the kits.

The Magic Valley is at the center of one such effort: a collaborative push for more streamlined cooperation between local hospitals, police, counselors and advocates. If the initiative is a success, it could serve as a model for other regions around the state.

Still in the early stages of development, the concept is loosely based on the model used by Faces of Hope Victim Center in Boise. That center is a one-stop-shop of sorts for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and child and elder abuse, offering access to sexual-assault kit collection, law enforcement, legal resources, counseling and other forms of support all under one roof.

Initially, the idea was to open up similar centers in the Magic Valley and other regions around the state, said Katherine Kerner, women's administration program manager at St. Luke's in Boise. But "after I kind of did a baseline survey and got the pulse of our communities, I realized it wasn't that realistic," she said.

The demand for victim services in Twin Falls and surrounding counties simply isn't high enough to warrant a physical center, Kerner explained. St. Luke's Magic Valley Medical Center tends to treat about 20 sexual assault patients per year; the Faces of Hope center in Boise saw 25 patients last month alone.

Instead, she and local partners are working to assemble a virtual center of sorts. Kerner envisions a group of Magic Valley nurses, law enforcement, attorneys, counselors, advocates and others meeting regularly to review cases, troubleshoot and work out ways to collaborate more smoothly. She sees the region as the "next big hub" for sexual assault victim services in the state.

Meanwhile, the state is working toward increasing the number of nurses who undergo formal Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner, or SANE, training. Of the 45 emergency department nurses at St. Luke's Magic Valley, all of the female nurses and some of the male nurses are SANE-trained, according to Jeff Carl, emergency department director.

The goal is to SANE-train between 200 and 250 more nurses across the state in the next couple of years, said Matthew Gamette, director of Idaho State Police Forensic Services. Whether that goal is accomplished will depend on the level of interest from communities, hospitals and nurses themselves, he said.

"We're building the resources to be able to train them," Gamette said. "But if you're going to have a party and nobody comes, there's not much we can do about that."

Donna Graybill, executive director of the Twin Falls-based nonprofit Voices Against Violence, hopes that the push to provide more training and resources to nurses will help eliminate some of the obstacles that remain for survivors living in rural areas, where kit-collection sites can be few and far between.

Typically, smaller, rural hospitals without SANE-trained nurses will refer patients to larger hospitals in more populated areas. Because St. Luke's Magic Valley is the only branch of St. Luke's in the region with a robust staff of SANE-trained nurses, survivors who show up at the Wood River or Jerome hospitals are usually sent to either Twin Falls or Boise. (The St. Luke's system provides patients with transportation between sites.)

Minidoka Memorial Hospital also performs kit collection. The Times-News was not able to confirm whether Cassia Regional Hospital or North Canyon Medical Center offer the service or refer patients to other facilities, as they did not immediately respond to inquiries.

For some survivors, having to travel hours to another hospital is not just an inconvenience; it's a deterrent, Graybill said.

"For many, that's a prohibitive distance and they end up not going to get the kit done," Graybill said. "Or if they do, it's a burden on the victim to go that far.

"It is an issue for sure," she continued. "But there are steps that are being taken to work on it, which is very hopeful."

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