UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital joins Injury Free Coalition for Kids
University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital was accepted into the Injury Free Coalition for Kids, a national organization using research and education to help prevent injury to children.
Charles Jennissen, MD, a pediatric emergency medicine physician in the Stead Family Department of Pediatrics and the department of emergency medicine at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, will serve as principal investigator, and Pam Hoogerwerf, injury prevention and community outreach manager at UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital, will serve as program coordinator for the UI coalition site.
“Our acceptance to become an Injury Free Coalition for Kids site opens many opportunities to collaborate with other leading children’s hospitals around the country on programming and research. Our goal is to make a significant difference in preventing unintentional injuries to the pediatric population,” Hoogerwerf says.
Iowa joins a group of more than 30 sites across the country, each located in trauma centers and supported by research and community outreach personnel. As members of the coalition, researchers and staff at UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital and the Carver College of Medicine will be able to better network and collaborate with their peers from other member sites who share similar interests in evidenced-based injury prevention and the optimal care and rehabilitation of injured patients.
“I am very excited that UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital has joined the Injury Free Coalition for Kids,” Jennissen says. “The hospitals and individuals involved in this organization are the nation’s innovative leaders in injury prevention programming and research. I am looking forward to sharing with the coalition the wonderful injury prevention research and community-engaged programming being undertaken at UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital. Working together, we can all continue moving forward in achieving our shared vision of a safer world for children.”
Increased injury prevention can help reduce health care costs for children and improve health outcomes. UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital leads several important safety initiatives including those for bicycle, car seat, and ATV use, as well as safe sleep. The hospital is home to the Safety Store, where patients and families can purchase safety items such as bike helmets and car seats both at the hospital and online and can also receive valuable injury prevention education and resources.