Abstract

BackgroundMany pediatric providers struggle to screen families for the majority of age-appropriate injury risks and educate them when appropriate. Standardized tools have helped physicians provide effective, more purposeful counseling. In this study, pediatricians utilized a standardized, injury prevention screening tool to increase targeted discussions and families were re-screened at subsequent visits to determine changes in their behavior.MethodsPediatric practices, recruited from the Ohio Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics database, self-selected to participate in a quality improvement program. Two screening tools, for children birth-4 month and 6–12 month, with corresponding talking points, were to be implemented into every well child visit. During the 7-month collaborative, screening results and pediatrician counseling for reported unsafe behaviors were calculated. Patients who completed a screening tool at subsequent visits were followed up at a later visit to determine self-reported behavior changes. We examined statistically significant differences in frequencies using the X2 test. Providers received maintenance of certification IV credit for participation.ResultsSeven practices (39 providers) participated. By the second month, participating providers discussed 75% of all inappropriate responses for birth-4 month screenings and 87% for 6–12 months. Of the 386 families who received specific counseling and had a follow-up visit, 65% (n = 94/144) of birth-4 month and 65% (n = 59/91) of 6–12 month families made at least one behavior change. The X2 test showed that families who received counseling versus those that did not were significantly more likely to change inappropriate behaviors (p < 0.05). Overall, of all the risks identified, 45% (136) of birth-4 month and 42% (91) of 6–12 month behaviors reportedly changed after a practitioner addressed the topic area.ConclusionsParticipation in a quality improvement program within pediatric offices can increase screening for injury risks and encourage tailored injury prevention discussions during an office encounter. As a result, significantly more families reported to practice safer behaviors at later visits.

Highlights

  • Many pediatric providers struggle to screen families for the majority of age-appropriate injury risks and educate them when appropriate

  • The data for this study were collected during our second wave of a Quality Improvement Learning Collaborative (QILC) conducted by the Ohio Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics (OAAP) from October 18, 2013 to May 31, 2014 (Gittelman et al, 2015)

  • Core teams participated in a pre-work conference call outlining the requirements for the QILC and the collection of baseline data (a three-month retrospective chart review of 36 randomly selected well-child visits (WCV) charts of children ≤1 year of age to evaluate the injury prevention (IP) anticipatory guidance (AG) discussions and documentation that occurred)

Read more

Summary

Introduction

Many pediatric providers struggle to screen families for the majority of age-appropriate injury risks and educate them when appropriate. Pediatricians utilized a standardized, injury prevention screening tool to increase targeted discussions and families were re-screened at subsequent visits to determine changes in their behavior. Close to 20 children die daily from a preventable injury; causing more deaths than all diseases combined (Sleet et al, 2002). Injured children account for more than 2 million outpatient visits, 9 million emergency department (ED) encounters and 225,000 hospital admissions annually; costing society over $87 billion each year Many high-income countries have been able to reduce their child injury deaths by up to 50% over the past three decades by implementing multipronged preventive efforts (Harvey et al, 2009)

Objectives
Methods
Results
Discussion
Conclusion
Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call