Injury Prevention
Project Overview and Indicators

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More children die from injuries than from all other causes combined. In fact, 62 percent of all pediatric deaths are the result of injuries. Arkansas’ children are more at risk than most: Our state’s unintentional injury rate is 87 percent higher than the national average — one of the highest in the country.

Many injuries can be prevented with simple, proven interventions and increased parental awareness of child development and risk factors. That’s the goal of a new collaboration between AFMC, the Injury Prevention Center at Arkansas Children’s Hospital and the Arkansas Department of Human Services. Physician counseling with the use of written materials has been shown to significantly increase parental use of child safety seats and other safety equipment and strategies. This collaboration has produced new quality improvement tools designed to educate parents and encourage physicians to reinforce basic child safety measures at each well-child visit.

The new tools include fact sheets that address five areas of injury that disproportionately affect Arkansas children: ATV safety, child passenger safety, home safety, teen driving, and burn prevention. In addition, the AAP guidelines for anticipatory guidance have been adapted to create checklists for physician offices.

Prevention continues to be a focus for AFMC and is emerging as one of the most cost-effective uses of provider effort. These tools can play an important role in helping protect our children and create safe environments so that they can grow and thrive.

AFMC can help you provide better care for your patients with injury prevention guidelines and tools. To find out more, contact our physician office quality improvement team.