Injury surveillance in the ED: design, implementation, and analysis.
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.
Brenner
Ruth A
RA
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
Scheidt
Peter C
PC
Rossi
Maryann W
MW
Cheng
Tina L
TL
Overpeck
Mary D
MD
Boenning
Douglas A
DA
Wright
Joseph L
JL
Kavee
Jill D
JD
Boyle
Kerrie E
KE
D002675:Child, Preschool; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods; D004219:District of Columbia / Q000453:epidemiology; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval; D008297:Male; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods*; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology*