Implementing a Comprehensive Child Restraint Program in a Pediatric Hospital: An Effective Model

Motor vehicle crashes remain a leading cause of death and injury to young children. Appropriate child safety seats and child safety restraints can provide life-saving protection to children riding in motor vehicles. Many children, however, travel unrestrained or improperly restrained. Consideration of appropriate child safety restraint systems for children is an important aspect of dis-charge planning and can provide families with the means to prevent unintentional injuries and deaths resulting from motor vehicle crashes. Each year thousands of children are discharged fromhospitals across the country. Many hospitals require,for safety and liability reasons, that children betaken by wheelchair and escorted by hospital staff or volunteers to the family vehicle. However, many hospitals may not provide families with recommendations regarding the safest way to transport their children home. By neglect