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(WSIL) -- When you go to the hospital, you expect to see a doctor and be treated there. But if you're a woman, man, or child who's been sexually assaulted in southern Illinois that's not always the case. 

According to the , five out 14 hospitals in the region have nurses who can perform evidence collection kits (commonly called rape kits). 

• Massac Memorial Hospital
• Hardin County General Hospital
• SIH Herrin Hospital
• SIH Memorial Hospital of Carbondale
• SSM Health Good Samaritan Hospital 

Cobden resident Cheryl Thompson found this out after going to hospital that did not offer an evidence collection kit. Now, she wants to spread awareness. 

Her story starts on New Years Eve, when Thompson decided to celebrate having a few drinks with some friend. She can recall arriving to the bar but not much else about that night. 

"I remember him sitting it (drink) down on the table in front of me and that's it," Thompson says. 

When she work up, Thompson knew that something wasn't right. 

"A bunch of dirt, pebbles, leaves, and prickly gumball fell out the back of my pants," she explains. 

Noticing other signs of sexual assault, Thompson then drove to the Union County Hospital. She thought a doctor would offer an evidence collection kit, but that's not the case.

"His response to me was, we don't do rape kits here," Thompson remembers. "You have to go to Mt. Vernon, which is 77 miles away. "

Thompson did not feel comfortable making the trip from the Union County Hospital to SSM Health Good Samaritan. She decided against it.

Thompson later found out through the , SIH Herrin Hospital and SIH Memorial Hospital of Carbondale both perform evidence collection kits.

"Instead of telling me, I could go 20 minutes from my house or 30 minutes from my house and get a rape kit done," she explains. "I would have had all the evidence that I would have needed. I still had on the same clothes. I hadn't showered. I hadn't done anything." 

So why did the doctor recommend Thompson travel so far?

Through a partnership, SSM Health Good Samaritan does sexual assault services for the Union County Hospital. Plus, six other hospitals in our region.

1. Hamilton Memorial Hospital
2. Crossroads Community Hospital
3. Franklin Hospital
4. Marshall Browning Hospital
5. Ferrell Hospital
6. Heartland Regional

Sue Drabing, Vice President of , says there are three main reasons for the agreement:

• A low volume of sexual assault victims at rural hospitals
• Difficulty hiring/maintaining staff to carry out evidence collection kits
• The amount of time it takes to complete evidence collection kits

Drabing's company provides SANEs or Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners to carry out evidence collection kits at SSM Health Good Samaritan. 

"A kit entails everything from photo documentation, the victim's statements, clothing, DNA evidence," she says. "SANEs can do hair clippings, they can do nail clippings." 

On top of a nursing shortage, there's a need for SANEs. Becoming ones takes six to 12 months of training. Only 25-percent of nurses who start SANE training finish it. At the end of two years, 50% of them have already left the program.

"It's a very stressful role," Drabing shares. "They see a lot of trauma in these victims, and hear a lot of horrible events that have occurred." 

Hiring SANEs and keeping them is challenge, especially for rural hospitals like many of those in southern Illinois. 

"So you're smaller hospitals that see one to four cases a year, just as an average," she states. "That's a small very small number for hospitals to be able to maintain these nurses."

Damon Harbison, President of , explains evidence collection can take six to 12 hours. Nurses in the emergency room can not leave the department for that long of a time-period, so SANEs are needed.

"Now, it's reducing the capacity of the emergency department for other patients coming in with other health services needs," he says. 

Plus, it's a process that cannot be rushed. SANEs must pay attention to detail while showing compassion.

"It's an equation where there are so many different variables and we need to get it right because we only have one chance to help this patient," Harbison reflects on the situation.

What about the other hospitals in southern Illinois?

The Pinckneyville Community Hospital transfers sexual assault patients to Memorial Hospital in Belleville. While, keeps patients within their own group of hospitals.

Melanie Sanders, System Director for the ER and patient logistics at SIH says,  Memorial Hospital of Carbondale does evidence collection kits for SIH St. Joseph Memorial Hospital in Murphysboro. 

That's because Illinois State Law requires a victim see a SANE within 90 minutes of reaching a treatment hospital.

The SIH Harrisburg Medical Center and SIH Herrin Hospital have the same agreement. 

"Harrisburg partners with Herrin to be their treatment center so we would either arrange transport or have them drive themselves dependent on their request," Sanders says. 

Katie Gossett is one of seven full-time SANEs at SIH. She explains that even if victims do not want to be transferred, they talk to a SANE over the phone and get other care.

"They still get medications, follow-up, and they get an exam," Gossett shares. "Everything the same minus evidence collection, so they're not just dismissed at a transfer facility."

Still News 3's Brooke Schlyer asked the question, should sexual assault victims be given a list of the hospitals in southern Illinois that carry out evidence collection kits so they can choose where to receive treatment?

Drabing believes all patients should be given options for their care.

"When they come into the emergency room and they have a broken leg or they have chest pain and they need to go for surgery or even the sexual assault in this case," she says. "They should all always be given their options of where they can go for care." 

However, it's not as simple as that. A patient can request to be transferred to another hospital, but that hospital does not have to accept the patient.

"Each transfer hospital is approved by the Illinois Department of Public Health for what they can transfer to where," Drabing adds. 

Thompson believes that rule by the state needs to be changed.

"That puts an undue burden on the victim," she says. "That shouldn't happen. I would like to see our legislators change the law maybe. If that's even possible."

After leaving the Union County hospital, Thompson went home. She changed her clothes and showered.

More than a week later, she went to SIH Memorial Hospital of Carbondale for an evidence collection kit.

She fears cleaning herself up and the amount of time that passed, could hurt the chances for a DNA match and conviction, "I don't think I'll be able to hold him responsible at all."

For now, Thompson will have to wait for her results.