Injury
Injury-related Emergency Department utilization and hospitalizations for both intentional
and unintentional injuries continue to challenge the programmatic and financial resources
of many hospitals. Preventable injuries continue to be a leading cause of morbidity and
mortality for Colorado children ages 1-19. The vast majority of injuries are non-fatal and
preventable, and can lead to a range of costly outcomes for families and communities. For
each incident that results in a visit to an E.D., many more injuries are never reported. While
some types of injury have declined in Colorado over the past decade, recent increases in
deaths due to teen motor vehicle crashes, suicide, and non-accidental trauma to infants
raise new concerns. Among all pediatric age groups, falls are a leading cause of emergency
department visits. Teen MVC and infant Shaken Baby Syndrome injuries remain problematic
for regional communities. Although motor vehicle fatalities have decreased, distracted and
impaired driving continues to endanger drivers, passengers, bicyclists, and pedestrians.
Opportunities include prevention-related primary care assessments and screenings,
enhanced coordination of community-based prevention efforts between partner trauma
centers, sharing of injury-related emergency department utilization data with local
hospitals, health departments and NPOs, and training of community providers in suicide
assessment and treatment interventions.
Goal 1: Strengthen the hospital-based and community-based education and outreach
components of the Child Passenger Safety (CPS) Program at Children’s Hospital
Colorado (CHCO) through establishment of a sustainable infrastructure that provides
leadership, funding, data, policy, and evaluation to support the needs of community
partners serving children and families in targeted communities.
Goal 2: Expand programmatic efforts, and facilitate opportunities for collaborative injury
prevention initiatives focusing on teen driver safety that provides leadership, funding,
data, policy, and evaluation to support the needs of schools and community partners
serving families and students in targeted communities.
Goal 3: Expand programmatic efforts, and facilitate opportunities for collaborative injury
prevention initiatives focusing on the four leading causes of unintentional injury among
children residing in neighborhoods at disproportionate risk.
Colorado
vs
National
Injury
#1
213
60
Leading cause of death
for kids under 19
Children died
from injuries
#1
12,174