Child Abuse Reporting in a Local Hospital

This thesis explores what effect educational efforts and other interventions had on the detection and reporting of child abuse by emergency room personnel at a local hospital. This was accomplished by examining a random sample of children's medical records prior to and after hospital educational efforts. It was hypothesized that all children seen in the emergency room after the in-service whose condition or circumstance were reportable as child maltreatment, were reported to the appropriate child protection agency. In the sample records, it appeared that the most obvious cases of child abuse were identified and reported. However, lack of documentation on child abuse screening made it impossible to support the hypothesis. Based on this finding, it was recommended that a protocol and screening procedure for abuse be routinely completed and documented in all children's medical records