Hospital to buy state-of-art tool to prosecute abuse cases

Nearly a year after critics complained Kootenai Medical Center mothballed vital medical equipment used to examine sexual assault victims, hospital officials said they’ll seek a new tool.

KMC officials said Tuesday they plan to spend as much as $13,000 on a culposcope, a state-of-the-art magnifying device that can be used to prove sexual abuse in court.

“This is the newest technology,” said Lisa Johnson, spokeswoman for the Coeur d’Alene hospital. “We want to be able to have something that works to collect the evidence. It’s treating the patients – that comes first for us.”

The announcement was met with skepticism, however, by some who complained last spring that KMC didn’t use similar equipment and trained staff paid for by a collaborative grant in 2000.

“That’s great news if they are indeed going to do that,” said Dot Clark, a longtime advocate for sexual assault victims. “They could have used the one that already existed. I think of all those victims who didn’t get services.”

Clark and others said KMC doctors have had access for nearly five years to a MedScope, an examination tool paid for through an $18,000 Idaho law enforcement grant.

They said the MedScope and trained sexual assault nurse examiners – known as SANE nurses – were rarely used, even during a scare caused by a serial rapist in Coeur d’Alene in 2004.

“I think there was minimal use from what the agencies were hoping for,” said Bridget Eismann, who heads the sexual assault subcommittee of the North Idaho Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

“I don’t understand why they didn’t use the great piece of equipment they had,” said Christine Everts, a former Women’s Center coordinator who helped write the original grant. Especially, she said, when women are being “assaulted and sexually abused weekly.”

The MedScope provided through the grant was not particularly useful, Johnson explained. For example, it used only natural light, had no camera attached and produced black-and-white images, she said.

“The doctors weren’t using it because it was outdated,” Johnson said.

By contrast, the culposcope will feature high-powered magnification and color images captured by an attached camera and lights. The device can detect minute tears, abrasions and other alterations in tissue that experts can use to confirm sexual abuse in adults or children.

Several pediatricians and obstetricians requested that KMC purchase a culposcope, Johnson said. That call was echoed by Colleen Nadauld, victim specialist with the Coeur d’Alene office of the FBI.

“I know it’s an important tool if you’re going to prosecute a case,” she said. “When I asked about it, (KMC staff) indicated there wasn’t such a thing available.”

Law enforcement and medical officials said it’s difficult to track the number of sexual assault victims in Kootenai County. In 2004, Idaho State Police logged 145 sex crimes there, including 51 reports of forcible rape and 66 reports of forcible fondling.

Last year, 62 people showed up in KMC’s emergency room with reports of sexual assault, Johnson said. Last month, Kootenai County prosecutors filed 13 cases involving sex crimes, said Jeanette Blumenschein, coordinator for the victim-witness program. Those included charges that ranged from lewd conduct with a minor to rape, she said.

It wasn’t immediately clear what KMC officials will do with the MedScope. The installation of the culposcope, expected within a few months, is welcomed by Eismann, who is eager to end conflicts over equipment.

“This is wonderful. Everybody is on the same page,” she said. “It’s not about what agency is doing this best. It’s about what all the agencies are doing to move forward.”