The bill only requires medical personnel to report violent injuries to law enforcement when the injury is life-threatening, such as a gun shot or multiple stabbing wounds.
Current law requires that doctors and nurses report all wounds indicating violence.
The legislation would not affect statutes that require medical personnel to report all incidents of child abuse or elderly abuse. The bill, recommended by the Governor's Task Force on Domestic and Sexual Violence, was unanimously approved by the 11-member House Health Care Licensing and Regulation Committee yesterday. Kelly Otte, an administrator of the Refuge House in Tallahassee, said one woman sticks out in her mind as the reason for such a law. She said the woman called the shelter's hotline the morning after she was beaten to report that blood was coming out of one of her ears, and the hotline counselor urged her to seek medical treatment. Otte explained that sometimes battered women need several months or years to save up enough money, gain courage or find another place to live before they can leave their violent households.