On Treatment of Nashville Rape Victims, They Just Don’t Get It

In a previous post, I pointed readers to a story in the Nashville Scene reporting that rape victims who show up at any Nashville ER are stabilized and then shuttled off to the only hospital in town that will do the forensic exams needed to prosecute to rapists. Well, not quite the only hospital – one major medical center provides the exams, but only to their own faculty and students.

The Scene has now received a series of letters from individuals who are offended because they believe that Nashville General Hospital is being portrayed as an inadequate place to receive care. In this issue’s letters to the editors, one writer insists that,

“The May 31 Scene article (“Rape Trauma”) suggests rape victims are assaulted again by being forced to receive their medical care at Nashville General Hospital (NGH). The truth is that rape victims are treated with dignity and respect at NGH, and victims are provided with access to compassionate and expert services that no other facility can or has been willing to provide…

 

It would be a tragedy if, because of this article, women and families felt hesitant to report the crime of rape because of some fear about an inaccurate, distorted characterization of Nashville General Hospital. This community needs to applaud and recognize the track record of barrier-breaking excellence offered by the Rape Trauma Services at Nashville General Hospital for over two decades.”

The June 7th letters to the editor included two additional missives on the subject, proclaiming that, “Mr. Jeff Woods obviously does not have any personal knowledge of the mission statement at Nashville General Hospital and has never met any of the amazing staff here,” and, “While I was a medical intern at Nashville General Hospital, I experienced firsthand the professionalism and compassion of the rape trauma team that handles each reported case of sexual assault in Nashville.”

Let’s be absolutely clear – the problem with this set-up is not that a rape victim has to go to General – it’s that the victim cannot receive complete rape care at any of our city’s hospitals except General. In fact, if you revisit Woods’s original article, you’ll find that he focuses on the trauma experienced by rape victims, and how having to go to a second hospital and get a second (different) exam can add to the burden the victim is already experiencing. If you only read the story’s secondary headline, “Adding insult to injury, victims must go to General Hospital for exam,” you might come away with the notion that he’s insulting Nashville General. If you read on, however, you’ll see that the emphasis is rightly placed on adding inconvenience for an already traumatized person. It may well be true that General provides excellent, timely, and compassionate care to rape victims. However, in a city with several large hospitals, a rape victim is likely to end up at just about any other hospital first, depending on her insurance, geographic location, access to a vehicle, etc. It’s hard enough for many people to seek care and report rape in the first place – needing to go to an additional hospital to have even the possibility of justice is an added burden.

Related: In the news today, the State will now cover the cost of these exams. Previously, according to the story, “those tests are followed by bills, demanding payment of as much as $1,000 for the forensic examinations. In some instances, the bills are turned over to collection agencies when the victims fail to pay.” Potential loss of federal Justice Dept funds is apparently at least part of the rationale for covering these costs. I’ll be interested to see whether this financial coverage influences other hospitals to offer the exams. Cost was one concern raised in the initial report by the Scene.

Previous post for background info

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