Butte County hospitals have combined forces to make the county's Sexual Assault Response Team much stronger.
All three hospitals have trained more staff members on how to properly handle the delicate job of examining the victims and collecting medical evidence.
It's nothing new for hospitals to work closely with police and others in handling rape cases.
But the numbers of staff trained to do the job were dwindling, until recently...when a concerted effort was made to beef up the ranks.
Sexual assault victims can come to an emergency room any time of day, any day of the week. So it's critical someone is available who is properly trained to conduct a sexual assault exam.
Chico Police Sgt. Scott Franssen says, “It's important for us to get evidence as soon as possible and for the crime to be investigated as thoroughly as possible. And a major part of that is evidence collection."
Chico police right now are working a number of active “stranger rape” cases, as well as sexual assaults involving acquaintances. “They're the victims in this case, they're the ones traumatized, we don't want to increase the trauma in any way," says Franssen.
Working with law enforcement and Rape Crisis, Enloe Medical Center recently sent a number of nurses to specialized training, boosting the number of trained sexual assault examiners from one to eight.
Stacy Vincent is the Enloe Emergency Department Manager of Nurses. She says, The psychological trauma is significant, it can linger for days weeks and months, so it’s very important that we're able to process victims and collect evidence and provide them with resources beyond the collection itself."
Feather River Hospital and Oroville Medical Center have also increased their training.
Sgt. Franssen notes, “We went from couple of months ago having few in the entire county to now each hospital has seven or eight."
The newly revitalized "SART" team means police and victims should no longer face delays or the need to travel outside the county for examinations.
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