MURRAY — It was just a miscarriage.

Nothing was broken. She didn't have any bruises. There was not a single scratch, mark or sign — except for the woman's insatiable tears — to alert the personnel at Intermountain Medical Center that she was being held as a prisoner in her own home by an abusive boyfriend.

But Barbara Ferrara, an emergency room care manager, asked anyway: "Do you have a safe place to go?"

"No," the woman said — a simple answer to sum up a complicated situation.

Ferarra arranged for the police to go with the woman to her home, where she picked up her belongings and moved to a shelter.

"Now she's doing just fine," Ferarra said. "We need to do this for more patients."

More than 14 percent of Utah women deal with domestic violence sometime during their lifetime, according to a Utah Department of Health report released last week. Emergency department staff, like Ferrara, can play a vital role in bringing this abuse to light and getting victims help.

"Health-care providers are gatekeepers in the community," said Ned Searle, director of the Office on Domestic and Sexual Violence. "They have the unique opportunity to be alone with individuals and ask personal questions."

Nearly 60 percent of emergency department staff in urban Utah routinely probe patients about intimate partner violence, the Utah Department of Health reported. Forty-three percent of staff in rural hospitals discuss domestic violence with their patients.

"Getting half of our doctors asking these questions is good," Searle said. "If we could get closer to 100 that would be even better."

Talking about domestic abuse — even in a private setting — can be uncomfortable for both patients and doctors, though. The list of barriers to communication about intimate partner violence, included in the health department's report, is long:

Patients don't want to talk about abuse.

Patients fear repercussions.

Doctors feel unequipped to interview victims of abuse.

Doctors are overwhelmed because there is little they can do to help domestic violence victims.

Even so, the number of doctors asking these vital questions has increased since the health department conducted a similar survey in 2003.

At the University of Utah, Dr. Kathy Franchek requires all of her medical residents to take a course on domestic violence screening, visit a battered-women's shelter and integrate questioning into their daily practice. The Utah Department of Health sponsors similar training for established professionals.