Implementation of routine electronic health record-based child abuse screening in General Emergency Departments

Routine child abuse screening is an approach to early identification of abuse. Previous studies evaluated paper-based screens; the widespread use of electronic health records suggests that screening is more likely to succeed if integrated into the electronic record.

To implement an electronic health record-based child abuse screen in a diverse hospital system and to evaluate the screening rate, rate of positive screens, and number of reports to Child Protective Services and assess whether hospital and patient characteristics are associated with these rates.

Children <13 years of age evaluated at one of 13 Emergency Departments within University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Health System.

A previously validated child abuse screen was slightly modified and integrated into Cerner. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to estimate the odds of the outcomes of interest, controlling for key covariates.

Of 17,163 eligible children: 68% received the screen of which 1.9% were positive. The rate of reports to Child Protective Services was higher among children who were screened (p < 0.0001). Younger children were more likely to be screened, have a positive screen, and have a report filed. There was no difference in the odds of being screened according to hospital teaching status, size or urban vs rural location.

A child abuse screening tool can be integrated into the electronic health record in a large health-care network. The increased number of reports among children who were screened suggests that screening facilitates detection of suspected maltreatment.