CANTON, Ohio (Oct. 27, 2016) – Aultman is proud to join a collaborative effort funded by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine and the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association (OCHA) to implement newly developed interventions and findings that aim to reduce the occurrence of child abuse in infants six months and younger.

Aultman will join 18 regional hospitals across the state who will utilize tools and information that resulted from the TRAIN Collaborative that will significantly increase detection and reduce reoccurrence of child abuse.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine funded the Timely Recognition of Abusive Injuries (TRAIN) Collaborative with a $1 million grant to OCHA. The purpose of TRAIN is to prevent repeat child abuse in the most vulnerable population, infants six months and younger. The TRAIN Collaborative has developed several tools that, once implemented by medical providers, may significantly reduce repeat instances of child abuse. The completed milestones include developing a comprehensive list of more than 50 different sentinel injuries, developing a physical examination that helps medical providers detect sentinel injuries and creating a bundle of care to confirm if abuse has occurred and if follow up care is needed.

The TRAIN Collaborative analyzed what the medical community refers to as “sentinel injuries.” Sentinel injuries are minor injuries known to the medical provider that should prompt concern that the child is being abused. Unfortunately, sentinel injuries are often missed by medical providers placing the infant at risk for further abuse. The TRAIN Collaborative identified several sentinel injuries, including bruising, fractures, head injuries, abdominal injuries, burns, genital injuries and oral injuries. To ensure sentinel injuries are no longer missed by medical providers, the Collaborative developed a recommended comprehensive physical examination for infants under six months of age that includes examination of the face, mouth, ears, neck, torso, genitals and buttocks.

If a medical provider discovers a sentinel injury, there is now a recommended protocol or “bundle of care,” which was developed by the TRAIN Collaborative. The bundle of care assists in the identification of abuse and ensures the infant receives appropriate follow-up care. The bundle of care includes a skeletal survey of the infant, psychosocial assessment of the caregivers and pediatric consultation.

TRAIN researchers established a baseline frequency of sentinel injuries and found that one in 10 Ohio children seen for child abuse has been seen previously with a sentinel injury and less than one in three receives the necessary physical examination and follow-up.

“We are grateful to Attorney General DeWine for making this program possible,” said Jonathan Thackeray, M.D., director of the TRAIN Collaborative. “We believe we are not only going to prevent further injuries to infants across the state, but also save lives here in Ohio, and eventually, across the country.”

More information about TRAIN is available at www.ohiochildrenshospitals.org.