Standardizing Child Passenger Safety Screening in the Emergency Department: A Quality Improvement Study.

Background: Motor vehicle collisions remain a leading cause of death and injury in children in the United States. Our Level I trauma center found that 53% of children ages 1-19 years are improperly restrained or unrestrained. Our center employs a Pediatric Injury Prevention Coalition with nationally certified child passenger safety technicians who are active in the community yet remain underutilized in the clinical setting.

Objective: The purpose of the quality improvement project was to standardize child passenger safety screening in the emergency department to increase referrals to a Pediatric Injury Prevention Coalition.

Methods: This quality improvement project utilized a pre-/postdesign of data collected before and after implementing the child passenger safety bundle. Using the Plan-Do-Study-Act model, organizational change processes were identified, and quality improvement interventions implemented from March to May 2022.

Results: The total number of families referred was 199, representing 230 children, which was 3.8% of the eligible population. A significant relationship was found between child passenger safety screening and referral to the Pediatric Injury Prevention Coalition in 2019 and 2021, χ2 (1, n = 230) = 239.98, p < .001, and χ2 (1, n = 230) = 240.78, p < .001, respectively. Forty-one percent of the referred families established contact with the Pediatric Injury Prevention Coalition.

Conclusion: Standardizing child passenger safety screening in the emergency department increased referrals to a Pediatric Injury Prevention Coalition and resulted in improved child safety seat distribution and child passenger safety education.