What Do Child Abuse and Neglect Medical Evaluation Consultation Notes Tell Researchers and Clinicians?

Abstract

Child abuse and neglect (CAN) medical experts provide specialized multidisciplinary care to children when there is concern for maltreatment. Their clinical notes contain valuable information on child- and family-level factors, clinical concerns, and service placements that may inform the needed supports for the family. We created and implemented a coding system for data abstraction from these notes. Participants were 1,397 children ages 0–17 years referred for a consultation with a CAN medical provider at an urban teaching and research hospital between March 2013 and December 2017. Coding themes were developed using an interdisciplinary team-based approach to qualitative analysis, and descriptive results are presented using a developmental-contextual framework. This study demonstrates the potential value of developing a coding system to assess characteristics and patterns from CAN medical provider notes, which could be helpful in improving quality of care and prevention and detection of child abuse.