Impact on Hospital Resources of Systematic Evaluation and Management of Suspected Nonaccidental Trauma in Patients Less Than 4 Years of Age

OBJECTIVE

There has been an increasing movement worldwide to create systematic screening and management procedures for atypical injury patterns in children with the hope of better detecting and evaluating nonaccidental trauma (NAT). A legitimate concern for any hospital considering implementation of a systematic evaluation process is the impact on already burdened hospital resources. We hypothesized that implementation of a guideline that uses red flags related to history, physical, or radiologic findings to trigger a standardized NAT evaluation of patients <4 years would not negatively affect resource utilization at our level II pediatric trauma center.

METHODS

NAT cases were evaluated retrospectively before and prospectively after implementation of the NAT guideline (n = 117 cases before implementation, n = 72 cases postimplementation). Multiple linear and logistic regression, χ², and Wilcoxon rank-sum tests were used to evaluate human, laboratory, technology, and hospital resource usage between cohorts.

RESULTS

Human (child abuse intervention department, ophthalmology, and evaluation by a pediatric surgeon for admitted patients), laboratory (urine toxicology and liver function tests), and imaging (skeletal survey and head or abdominal computed tomography) resource use did not differ significantly between cohorts (all P > .05). Emergency department and hospital lengths of stays also did not differ between cohorts. A significant 13% decrease in the percentage of patients admitted to the hospital was observed (P = .01).

CONCLUSIONS

Structured evaluation and management of pediatric patients with injuries atypical for their age does not confer an added burden on hospital resources and may reduce the percentage of such patients who are hospitalized.