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The Injury Free Coalition for Kids UTHealth Houston/Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital is a hospital-university-community coalition based out of Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital, a pediatric level I trauma center based in Houston, Texas. Through our partnerships with UTHealth Houston and CMHH we are focused on collaborating with our community to improve the health and safety of the children not only at CMHH and our UTHealth Houston Clinics, but in the immediate Houston area.
Injury Free UTHealth Houston/CMHH plans to work together with our communities to identify areas of risk and implement initiatives to meet the unique needs of our pediatric patients. Through the development of interactive programs, we hope to reduce injury in our patients locally, and strive to dedicate our efforts to keep our children and communities thriving.
Our current programs include:
Safe Sleep Program: Newborn safe sleep education is provided from birth through hospital discharge, emphasizing the ABCs in safe sleep. Each infant is provided with a sleep sack as well as education, not only in our low risk nursery but also in our neonatal intensive care nurseries.
Car Seat Program: We are a Safe Riders site with UTHealth Houston, where we provide education and car seat distribution for the community. Within our hospital we also have an emergency car seat distribution program to assist families in need.
Injury Prevention Education: We have developed novel approaches to medical student and pediatric resident education in general injury prevention as well as secure firearm storage. By training the next generation of providers, we can continue to improve the health and safety of children for many years to come.
Community Outreach: In partnership with local school districts and community agencies, we collaborate to bring injury prevention education to families, and also distribute a variety of safety materials such as bike helmets, cable locks, and life jackets. These events are critical to advancing our mission to improve the health and safety of our community.
Trauma Dashboard: We have collaborated with the School of Public Health to create an interactive dashboard of child injuries, that we can utilize to better assess the needs of our local population. This data is transformative for our research and outreach efforts.
Program Coordinators:
Sarah Beth Abbott, BS, EMT-LP
Injury Prevention and Outreach Education Coordinator
Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital
Sarah.Abbott@memorialhermann.org
Marisol Nieves, LCSW, CPST
Injury Prevention and Outreach Education Coordinator
UTHealth Houston
Marisol.nieves@uth.tmc.edu
Co-PIs:
Sandy McKay, MD FAAP
Sandra.McKay@uth.tmc.edu
Melissa Kwan, MD FAAP
melissa.h.kwan@uth.tmc.edu