The kickoff event was held last Friday at UPMC Lock Haven, where many came out to show their support of the partnership.

The SAFE-T Center operated under Penn State University, partners with underserved communities in Pennsylvania to supply high quality care for victims of sexual assault.

Over a year ago, a board member of the Clinton County Women’s Center (now known as Roads to Peace) approached Clinton County Commissioner Jeff Snyder and asked if there was any way UPMC could be encouraged to have a sexual assault nurse examiner at their location in Lock Haven, since victims would previously travel to Bellefonte or Lycoming County for examination. Snyder brought key community agencies together for a meeting, including UPMC President Ron Reynolds, UPMC Director of Quality Ashley Fedroff, UPMC RN Amy Quiggle, local law enforcement and advocates of the Women’s Center.

As of Feb. 1, the UPMC Lock Haven Emergency Department will be able to provide these services to the community.

RICK KESSINGER/THE EXPRESS Sheridan Miyamoto took center stage to explain the majority of the ins and outs of the UPMC and SAFE-T center partnership.

Initial funding for this project and their first three hospital sights (with a fourth to be added) came from a $4 million research grant from the Department of Justice, which in turn allowed them to make progress in obtaining a $2.4 million grant from the Pennsylvania Commission for Crime and Delinquency. They became eligible for this grant back in August of last year, according to director of the SAFE-T Center and assistant professor of the Penn State College of Nursing Sheridan Miyamoto. With this financing the program is able to obtain the new technology necessary to kickstart the program.

Some new recruits were also necessary to move forward and seven on-call nurses with 40 hours of online training and four days of hands-on training were hired, Quiggle said.

Quiggle said the SAFE-T program is comprised of an on-location trained sexual assault nurse examiner paired along with another certified sexual assault nurse examiner (Tele-SANE) from Penn State via a 24/7 live video known as telehealth. This allows the on-location nurse to do the exam, collect evidence and document the process while the Tele-SANE provides expert guidance from a secure location on a laptop at that exact moment.

Having two experts thinking of patient’s care is especially important as there aren’t as many trained examiners as there are hoped to be. Miyamoto said there are only 53 certified sexual assault nurse examiners in the state and it’s an emotionally difficult field. Registered nurse and Advanced Clinical Education Specialist Kelly Luckenberg confirmed that it can be a sensitive subject especially when helping a patient through such a traumatic event.

Miyamoto stated that the program is already seeing results.

RICK KESSINGER/THE EXPRESS Faith Mong, BSN, RN, SANE-A, SANE-P, Clinical Education & Training Coordinator and John Essick, Telehealth IT Manager both from Penn State SAFE-T Center demonstrate live video function of their new Telehealth technology. The camera shows the flower pictured on screen in real time.

“We want this to be something that’s sustained. We already have really good preliminary evidence that this is working for patients. It’s working for the nurses and it’s an effective model. We don’t want to put something in a community that works well and see it go away.”

46 of the 59 calls to the center resulted in consultation, with the others speculated to have had too much time pass and so acute care at the hospital was unneeded. The number of patients that have been cared for has tripled at two of the first three sights in the years that SAFE-T has been there. Over 75% of patients who have completed their care survey said having a telehealth consultation improved the care they received, and rated the quality of care as excellent or very good. They said the exam helped them to feel better.

Patients who have gone on to receive a telehealth consultation stated, “I really felt approved and loved by everyone. I felt like they knew me and understood me. They didn’t judge or question me about things I did not feel comfortable talking about. They answered all my questions and were very supportive. And both the nurse and the safety expert were amazing and made this horrific process so much easier.”

Those in attendance included Clinton County Commissioners Angela Harding and Miles Kessinger, who were there to show their support.

When asked how she felt about the program, Harding said, “It’s incredible for our community and region that we can assist any sexual assault victim… going forward … we’ll be able to work with the DA to form credible cases.”

Though commissioner Snyder could not be there that day, he said he would like to thank UPMC president Ron Reynolds and the others who made the UPMC SAFE-T program with Penn State a reality.

If you would like to know more about the program, the SAFE-T center recently took part in episode one of the podcast “The Future of Nursing.”