Utah deployed an electronic forensic medical record system that allows sexual assault nurse examiners statewide to upload and store patient exam records for sexual assault investigations on a single, secure system, The Salt Lake Tribune reports.
Utah launched the new records system, called FeMR, across all 29 of its counties on July 1, according to the report. The state deployed a similar records system in select counties in 2017, which was accessible by the Wasatch Forensic Nurses, a nonprofit that provides sexual assault victims with healthcare resources and timely medical exams. Utah was able to expand the system statewide after receiving a $50,000 grant from the state legislature.
"Now, every nurse who does a medical forensic exam for an adolescent or adult patient has access to this record," said Susan Chasson, a sexual assault nurse examiner with the Utah Coalition Against Sexual Assault, the publication reports. "We're all using the same form. It's all stored in the same place."
FeMR is encrypted and compliant with federal healthcare privacy regulations, according to Ms. Chasson. The system also allows state crime lab and law enforcement officials to access sexual assault reports more quickly.
Before the system launched, Saint George, Utah-based Southwest SANE II's team of sexual assault nurse examiners would store patients' exam records and photos by burning them onto two discs using a computer that did not connect to the internet. One of the discs was then stored with the patient's paper file in a fireproof cabinet at the hospital while the second disc was kept in a security deposit box at a bank, Southwest SANE II Program Director Camden Caifa told The Salt Lake Tribune.