Professionals involved with Urgent Care in Pearland are mandatory reporters. They are required by law to report any signs of possible abuse associated with children, adults over the age of 65 or any individual with physical or mental disabilities. Mandatory reporting also includes possible instances of neglect in which children or adults appear as if they have not been properly cared for or seem to be malnourished. Children and adults who live in state operated facilities sometimes fall victim to individuals who abuse or exploit them for their own gain.
Neglect and abuse is not limited to individuals in state or private facilities. It can also occur within the home or at the hands of caregiver, such as a baby sitter or day care provider. Families often bring children to low cost urgent care centers in the hopes that abuse will not be considered as a cause for unexplained injuries. This is not the case, however, due to regulations that declare anyone in the medical or educational professions to be a mandatory reporting agent. If a teacher or healthcare professional believes that a person is being abused or neglected and fails to properly report the situation, they can be found criminally liable.
The professional staff of Urgent Care in Pearland take these responsibilities very seriously. They must take great care in assessing a patient’s condition to accurately make the determination that abuse or neglect has occurred. Many of the patient’s they see do not have a primary care physician and therefore, do not continually seek out proper medical care. Because of this, medical records can be scarce leaving health professionals in the dark about any past injuries that may become apparent during an examination.
Physicians and nurses must be extremely observant when it comes to assessing specific types of injuries. Health professionals at Urgent Care in Pearland are taught to recognize certain injuries that are often associated with physical abuse. For example, a child who is diagnosed with a spiral fracture of the arm may be extensively questioned about how they received the injury. Spiral fractures are often the result of the arm being twisted to the point that the amount of force being uses causes the bone to break in a spiral pattern. This type of injury is often documented and submitted through the mandatory reporting system.
Children are not the only group to be physically abused. The elderly and those who suffer from physical and mental disabilities are also included in the reporting program. Individuals who fall into these categories and appear as if they are malnourished or have an abundance of physical injuries that can’t be accounted for will, more often than not, be reported by the medical professionals of Urgent Care in Pearland.
