Hospital based child passenger safety activities: A statewide survey

A statewide survey was conducted of all hospitals in Illinois with a newborn service to determine what methods, if any, were being used to encourage child restraint use for newborns upon discharge. Types of activities were graded as follows: none, passive, active, and aggressive. Eighty-two percent of hospitals in Illinois have some program to encourage child passenger safety; 18% have no activities. However, only 8% of hospitals have a program which could be characterized as aggressive. No consistent pattern of methods emerged. As a result of this survey, a protocol has been developed which will be sent to Illinois hospitals detailing and encouraging an aggressive hospital based child passenger safety program.