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Hospitals can report crimes too
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| Submitted photo Beloit Memorial Hospital Emergency Medicine Physician Jessica Matthews, right, and Beloit Memorial Hospital Physician Assistant Dave Drum, left, are looking at X-rays of a patient’s hand to determine if there is a broken bone. |
By Rasmieyh Abdelnabi
Daily News staff writer
Reporting crime is incumbent on all community members and hospitals are doing their part as well.
By law, hospitals in Wisconsin and Illinois are required to report gunshot and stabbing wounds.
In Wisconsin, in the case of rape involving an adult, the victim has the right not to report the incident, said Beloit Memorial Hospital Emergency Services Clinical Manager Kit Jernegan. An incident involving a child is always reported to Child Protective Services and the police, she added.
“Physical abuse, neglect, emotional damage or threatened harm - if we suspect it, we would report,” Jernegan said. “To protect the victim we're mandatory reporters. By law we have to report these things.”
Beloit Memorial Hospital Emergency Room Physician Jessica Matthews said any time a patient comes in with a suspicious wound, the hospital will report it to the police. The name of the patient, along with the kind of wound, is reported.
Matthews said emergency room staff receive instruction on the suspicious types of injuries through their medical training.
“Our general medical training trains us very well for what to look for,” she explained.
However, Jernegan explained victims do have the choice not to speak to police about the matter.
Matthews said with sexual assault, adult patients have to sign a release giving the hospital permission to report it to police.
In Illinois, hospitals are required to report sexual assault, said Sherry Green, Director of the Emergency Department at SwedishAmerican Hospital in Rockford.
There is a chain of evidence with strict protocols that needs to be followed in rape cases, she explained. The nurse who does the rape kit is required to keep the evidence with her until it is handed over to the police, Green said.
“We are mandated to report it, but they don't have to talk to them. We don't do anything (patients) don't want us to do,” Green said. “And police are aware of this and they don't infringe on them.”
With sexual assault cases, a counselor is called in from a advocacy program just in case the victim wants to speak to someone, she said. Counselors bring clothes and supplies.
Hospitals are also required to report gunshot and stabbing wounds, as well as assault.
Green said reporting violence is an effective way of dealing with crime. However, it doesn't always make things easy for the hospital, she added.
“I think it puts us in kind of a difficult position because patients come here to be in a safe haven,” she explained.
Still if hospitals didn't inform police of patients coming in with suspicious injuries much crime would go unreported, she said.
As for Matthews, she said, “I hope we are doing the right thing and the justice system is effective but I honestly don't know where these cases end up.”
The bottom line is while hospitals are obligated to report suspicious incidents, victims have the right not to speak to police.
“We have a fair amount of people who don't want to talk about it,” Green said.
By law, hospitals in Wisconsin and Illinois are required to report gunshot and stabbing wounds.
In Wisconsin, in the case of rape involving an adult, the victim has the right not to report the incident, said Beloit Memorial Hospital Emergency Services Clinical Manager Kit Jernegan. An incident involving a child is always reported to Child Protective Services and the police, she added.
“Physical abuse, neglect, emotional damage or threatened harm - if we suspect it, we would report,” Jernegan said. “To protect the victim we're mandatory reporters. By law we have to report these things.”
Beloit Memorial Hospital Emergency Room Physician Jessica Matthews said any time a patient comes in with a suspicious wound, the hospital will report it to the police. The name of the patient, along with the kind of wound, is reported.
Matthews said emergency room staff receive instruction on the suspicious types of injuries through their medical training.
“Our general medical training trains us very well for what to look for,” she explained.
However, Jernegan explained victims do have the choice not to speak to police about the matter.
Matthews said with sexual assault, adult patients have to sign a release giving the hospital permission to report it to police.
In Illinois, hospitals are required to report sexual assault, said Sherry Green, Director of the Emergency Department at SwedishAmerican Hospital in Rockford.
There is a chain of evidence with strict protocols that needs to be followed in rape cases, she explained. The nurse who does the rape kit is required to keep the evidence with her until it is handed over to the police, Green said.
“We are mandated to report it, but they don't have to talk to them. We don't do anything (patients) don't want us to do,” Green said. “And police are aware of this and they don't infringe on them.”
With sexual assault cases, a counselor is called in from a advocacy program just in case the victim wants to speak to someone, she said. Counselors bring clothes and supplies.
Hospitals are also required to report gunshot and stabbing wounds, as well as assault.
Green said reporting violence is an effective way of dealing with crime. However, it doesn't always make things easy for the hospital, she added.
“I think it puts us in kind of a difficult position because patients come here to be in a safe haven,” she explained.
Still if hospitals didn't inform police of patients coming in with suspicious injuries much crime would go unreported, she said.
As for Matthews, she said, “I hope we are doing the right thing and the justice system is effective but I honestly don't know where these cases end up.”
The bottom line is while hospitals are obligated to report suspicious incidents, victims have the right not to speak to police.
“We have a fair amount of people who don't want to talk about it,” Green said.
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