You asked a series of questions relating to sexual assault examinations and exam kits for the past three fiscal years. Specifically, you want to know:

1. how much the state reimbursed health care facilities for sexual assault examinations and exam kits;

2. the number of children's examinations and exam kits the reimbursements covered in each facility and in total;

3. how many children's examinations sexual assault nurse examiners (SANE) conducted;

4. (a) the years, if any, during which the budget included funding for SANE, (b) whether the funds were used, and (c) whether there was an appropriate request for proposal for allocating the funding.

The Division of Criminal Justice reimbursed health care facilities $ 596,845 for 1662 children's and 445 adult sexual assault examinations and exam kits during FY 1999-00, FY 2000-01, and the first three quarters of FY 2001-02. Reimbursements were made to 29 facilities. Appendices A, B, and C show the reimbursements per facility for each of these periods.

The number of reimbursements per facility for children's examinations and exam kits ranged from one (four facilities) to 691. Fourteen facilities (approximately 50%) were reimbursed for fewer than 10 exams and exam kits each. St. Francis' Medical Center and Yale University's Department of Pediatrics accounted for the bulk of the reimbursements-691 and 501 exams and exam kits, respectively. (Table 1 shows the number of children's examinations and exam kits for each facility. )

Of the 16 hospitals that responded to our telephone survey, four indicated that they have used SANE nurses to examine children. (These are nurses specially trained to collect evidenced in sexual assault cases. ) The four hospitals-Day Kimball, Milford, New Britain General, and New Milford-performed 36 children's examinations. But, it is unclear exactly how many of them were performed by SANE nurses. Officials at Milford Hospital, which performed eight examinations, and New Milford Hospital, which performed two examinations, are unsure if SANE nurses performed the examinations. Day Kimball used SANE nursed to perform its three examinations, and New Britain General used them to perform all of its 23 examinations.

The following 12 hospitals, which performed 1,329 children's examinations during the period under the study, indicated that they did not use SANE nurses: Bridgeport, Greenwich, Middlesex, Midstate Medical Center, Sharon, St. Francis, St. Vincent's Medical Center, Stamford, Torrington-Winstead Pediatric Associates, Windham Community, Yale New Haven, and Yale University's Department of Pediatrics.

The nine hospitals that did not respond are Charlotte Hungerford, Community Health Center of Middletown, Danbury, Hartford, Lawrence Memorial, Rockville General, St. Mary's, St. Raphael's, and William Backus. These hospitals accounted for 297 of the 1,662 exams performed on children during these years.

The University of Connecticut received $ 50,000 for training SANE nurses through a request for proposal process in FY 1997-98 and FY 1998-99. The 1999-2001 Biennium Budget eliminated funding for this program.

Table 1: Number of Examinations and Kits for Children per Facility for FYS 1999-00, 2000-01, and 2001-02. *

Source: Division of Criminal Justice

*To March 31, 2002Appendix A: FY 1999-00 reimbursements of examinations and exam kits per facility

Appendix B: FY 2000-01 Reimbursements of examinations and exam kits per facility

Appendix C: FY 2001-March 31, 2002 Reimbursements of examinations and exam kits per facility

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