A bill meant to staff each West Virginia hospital with a qualified sexual assault nurse examiner passed the Senate unanimously Tuesday. But there were changes to reduce the requirement on having nurses on site.
Senate Bill 89 has been discussed at length this legislative session, in addition to interim meetings. The bill requires all West Virginia hospitals to have sexual assault nurse examiners on staff and on call. These are nurses trained to perform physical examinations on a sexual assault victim and collect a rape kit.
Two amendments to the bill passed through the House of Delegates Monday that would allow hospitals to transfer victims to a facility with trained staff or treat them via telehealth.
Del. Amy Summers, R-Taylor, said telehealth or transfers will only be an option if the victim provides their consent.
“It would not be allowed to be done if somebody didn’t give their consent for it. So, if you research the data on TeleSANE, it’s called, if you find that the reason it’s been created…is because the rural and underserved communities also usually can’t find people,” Summers said. “So what they’ll do is they’ll use someone that knows how to perform an exam, but they only get one or one a year, right. They don’t have all of the knowledge that somebody that’s an expert in the field might. So it just works to help supplement that. So that you get the best evidence that you possibly can.”
The bill now heads to Gov. Jim Justice for a signature.