Starting in early July, highly trained nurses will come to Valley Medical Center to administer sexual-assault exams that can provide the critical evidence needed to send a rapist to prison.

The exams, also known as “rape kits,” have always been available at Valley; but about a year ago Valley administrators reached out to UW Medicine after hospital nurses expressed concern about the exacting demands, both medical and legal, of their administration.

“They didn’t want a woman to suffer yet again because we had not been able to do it absolutely perfectly,” Theresa Braungardt, Valley’s chief nursing officer, said of the exam, which takes about three hours.

Valley’s registered nurses didn’t perform enough of the highly specialized exams to maintain their skills and to keep up with changing protocols, Braungardt said. Valley’s nurses met Public Health requirements to administer the tests.

Nurses in the emergency room typically did three to five exams each month, out of the roughly 7,000 visits made to the ER, according to Braungardt.

During the last several months, Valley and UW Medicine have worked out an agreement in which Harborview Medical Center will send a SANE-trained nurse to Valley to do an exam. SANE stands for Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner.

The registered nurse has received special training to provide comprehensive care and to conduct the forensic exam. The SANE nurse also can provide expert testimony if the case goes to trial.

“This role was developed because it is so specialized now,” said Braungardt, who likened the new protocol to sending any patient to Harborview for the expert care available there.

Northwest Hospital and University Hospital, which like Valley Medical are components of UW Medicine, have followed the same protocol for years.

In the interim, Valley has been sending patients to Harborview for the exams, after first performing a medical examination and providing crisis counseling.

“It’s really important that we are really clear that before they leave our Emergency Department, they have a medical screening exam to make sure they are physically safe and no harm or injury has come to them during the course of their assault,” said Kayett Asuquo, director of Valley’s Emergency Department.

Counselors will help them arrange transportation to Harborview in Seattle, either privately or through a taxi service, she said. Often, a victim will come to the hospital with someone, who can provide much-needed support, she said.

The exams are free for the victim, which are paid for by the Crime Victims Compensation Fund.

Bonnie Conley, director of social work at Harborview, called a SANE exam “the gold standard” for treating a patient. She expects the “significant amount of training” required and preparations to store evidence should be done by July 1.

With the addition of Valley, UW Medicine will be able to provide the same level of care throughout its system, she said. “This is a big deal,” she said. Also near Harborview is UW Medicine’s Sexual Assault and Traumatic Stress Center.

Conley said Harborview knows it’s “a hardship” for a patient to come to Seattle in the interim but the trade-off is the higher level of care.

Asuquo, the Emergency Department director, agrees.

“We’ve always wanted to give our community the very best service. So for a period of time that very best service required that they go to Harborview for specialized care,” she said. But starting in early July, a victim will stay in their own community, “which is what they want.

Mary Frances Klug, a spokeswoman for the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center in Renton, stressed the importance of being examined quickly, especially if the victim was drugged, and collecting evidence in the proper way.

A hospital counselor will help a victim determine how best to move forward with her care, which could include the morning-after pill or a screening for STDs, according to Asuquo.

In May, Gov. Jay Inslee signed a law that effective July 23 police agencies are required to request testing of a rape kit within 30 days after receiving the kit, unless the victim doesn’t want the evidence used in an investigation.

Thousands of rape kits have gone untested across the nation, likely allowing rapists to escape prosecution, according to victim advocates.