Hamilton Medical Center (HMC) will host a ribbon cutting for its new forensic unit, one of six hospital-based units in Georgia. The unit is under the direction of Ashley Cloer, RN, SANE, and the medical director, Maranda Reed, MD.

The ribbon cutting ceremony will be held at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 4, in Ambassador Plaza (near the entrance of Peeples Cancer Institute. In the event of rain, the ceremony will be held in the HMC main lobby. Participants are encouraged to wear teal in honor of Sexual Assault Awareness Month (April).

Open 24 hours a day, seven days a week; the unit provides patients who have experienced domestic violence and/or physical or sexual assault with forensic medical examinations.

Handling acute and historical cases, the unit consists of three rooms with state-of-the-art equipment, including a Cortexflo and a Sexual Assault Kit Tracking System (SAKS) that is used in conjunction with the Georgia Criminal Justice Coordinating Council.

The unit is housed in a newly renovated space and is adjacent to the HMC Emergency Department and has 12 fully trained sexual assault nurse examiners (SANE). One of the SANE nurses on the team, Karen Dundrum, MSN, RN, CEN, CPEN, SANE-A, SANE-P, AFN-C, is on the board of directors for the Academy of Forensic Nursing and is certified in Advanced Forensic Nursing.

Patients have the capability of tracking their sexual assault kits digitally. Sexually transmitted infection (STI) screening and treatment are provided at no charge, and patients are assigned a patient advocate by the Georgia Victim Witness Assistance Program. The preferred way for patients to access the unit is to call 911. If you have questions about this program, please contact Cloer at acloer@hhcs.org or ext. 706-272-6377.