Citation

Brenner RA, Scheidt PC, Rossi MW, Cheng TL, Overpeck MD, Boenning DA, Wright JL, Kavee JD, Boyle KE. Am. J. Emerg. Med. 2002; 20(3): 181-187.

Affiliation

Division of Epidemiology, Statistics, and Prevention Research, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. BrennerR@nih.gov

Copyright

(Copyright © 2002, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

11992337

Abstract

Comprehensive, population-based surveillance for nonfatal injuries requires uniform methods for data collection from multiple hospitals. To show issues related to design and implementation of multihospital, emergency department (ED), injury surveillance, a city-wide system in the United States is discussed. From October 1, 1995 to September 30, 1996 all injury-related ED visits among District of Columbia residents <3 years of age were ascertained at the 10 hospitals where city children routinely sought care. Information was abstracted from 2,938 injury-related, ED visits (132.7 visits/1,000 person-years). Based on this experience, suggestions to facilitate design of multihospital, injury surveillance in other locations are offered. Importantly, injury-related visits were reliably ascertained from ED logs, and for most variables, a systematic sample of injury-related visits was representative of the total injured population. However, there is a need for more complete documentation of circumstances surrounding injuries and for standardization of data elements on ED logs and treatment records.