Hutchinson ? A central Kansas prosecutor says his county’s procedure for handling local rape cases is in disarray.

Reno County District Attorney Keith Schroeder says a Hutchinson hospital has been sending some rape victims to Salina or Wichita hospitals for sexual assault examinations.

Promise Regional Medical Center says the hospital has had staffing problems, including too few nurses trained in such exams. A spokesman says the hospital prefers to have four certified sexual assault nurse examiners, but has only two.

The Hutchinson News reports that Schroeder says it costs the county more money when victims are sent to out-of-town hospitals. That’s because local law enforcement officers must travel to the other towns to interview victims and collect rape kits.

A similar series of events occurred at Lawrence Memorial Hospital in 2009, prompting Douglas County District Attorney Charles Branson to write a letter to the hospital’s CEO. In the letter he outlined several occasions in which sexual assault victims had been sent to other hospitals and accused LMH of putting the community at risk.

The situation resulted in LMH taking steps to increase the number of nurses trained to perform sexual assault exams in the event that multiple rape victims arrived at the same time.