Characteristics of acute sexual assault care in New England emergency departments.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Interventions such as written protocols and sexual assault nurse examiner programs improve outcomes for patients who have experienced acute sexual assault. How widely and in what ways such interventions have been implemented is largely unknown. We sought to characterize the current state of acute sexual assault care in New England.

Methods

We conducted a cross-sectional survey of individuals acute with knowledge of emergency department (ED) operations in relation to sexual assault care at New England adult EDs. Our primary outcomes included the availability and coverage of dedicated and non-dedicated sexual assault forensic examiners in EDs. Secondary outcomes included frequency of and reasons for patient transfer; treatment before transfer; availability of written

SUBMITTER: Barron RJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10182368 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature