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Child health care officials and defense lawyers and prosecutors are alarmed that a Texas agency that examines and counsels abused children has stopped videotaping sexual assault examinations at its clinic despite the tapes’ potential to help authorities uncover possible flaws in hundreds of exams conducted by a nurse.
University of Texas Health Science Center pediatricians in Houston operated and staffed Harris County’s Children’s Assessment Center and reviewed videotapes of more than 800 sexual assault examinations performed by the nurse. In December, the center contracted with Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital to provide services at the clinic, which ended the center’s policy of visually documenting all sexual assault examinations conducted at its facility.
The Harris County District Attorney’s Office filed proposed legislation last week that would force the center to resume photo documentation of most sexual assault exams. The center now opts to photograph just a few selected exams. While the Harris County center’s new medical chief said photo documentation of sexual assault examinations is overrated, the medical director of the Alamo Children’s Advocacy Center in San Antonio said “photographs have to be considered a standard of care” and she would like the proposed legislation to apply to all of Texas.