Child Maltreatment: A Decade of Burgeoning Science, With Emergency Departments Still in a Pivotal Role

The emergency department (ED) is a vital entry point to the health care system for children. There are more than 25 million pediatric visits to EDs a year.1 Children who have been maltreated commonly present to the ED due to the acute nature of their injury, lack of access to primary care, expanded hours of operation of the ED, choice of the ED as usual source of care, or because of unrelated conditions but are discovered by ED personnel to have been maltreated.2 Unfortunately, the burden of child abuse has increased since the last time this journal did a special edition devoted to this topic.
Source: Clinical Pediatric Emergency Medicine - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Guest Editor's Preface Source Type: research