Citation

Villaveces A, Peck M, Faraklas I, Hsu-Chang N, Joe V, Wibbenmeyer L. J. Burn Care Res. 2014; 35(1): 28-40.

Affiliation

From the *UNC Injury Prevention Research Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; †Cisalva Institute, University of El Valle, Cali, Colombia; ‡Arizona Burn Center, Maricopa Medical Center, Phoenix; §Department of Surgery, University of Utah, Salt Lake City; ‖Torrance Memorial Medical Center Burn Center, California; ¶Department of Surgery, University of California, Irvine; and #Department of Surgery, University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, American Burn Association, Publisher Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1097/BCR.0b013e3182a3aaaa

PMID

24126473

Abstract

Detailed information on the cause of burns is necessary to construct effective prevention programs. The International Classification of External Causes of Injury (ICECI) is a data collection tool that allows comprehensive categorization of multiple facets of injury events. The objective of this study was to conduct a process evaluation of software designed to improve the ease of use of the ICECI so as to identify key additional variables useful for understanding the occurrence of burn injuries, and compare this software with existing data-collection practices conducted for burn injuries. The authors completed a process evaluation of the implementation and ease of use of the software in six U.S. burn centers. They also collected preliminary burn injury data and compared them with existing variables reported to the American Burn Association's National Burn Repository (NBR). The authors accomplished their goals of 1) creating a data-collection tool for the ICECI, which can be linked to existing operational programs of the NBR, 2) training registrars in the use of this tool, 3) establishing quality-control mechanisms for ensuring accuracy and reliability, 4) incorporating ICECI data entry into the weekly routine of the burn registrar, and 5) demonstrating the quality differences between data collected using this tool and the NBR. Using this or similar tools with the ICECI structure or key selected variables can improve the quantity and quality of data on burn injuries in the United States and elsewhere and thus can be more useful in informing prevention strategies.

Language: en