What Are We Missing?: Evaluating an Intimate Partner Violence Screening Program in a Pediatric Emergency Department.

Objectives: Our study sought to explore and assess pediatric emergency department (ED) health care providers' knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors surrounding an existing intimate partner violence (IPV) screening program 4 years after initial implementation.

Methods: We used anonymous electronic surveys and telephone interviews to obtain provider perspectives using a mixed-methods analysis. We used χ2 tests to analyze the quantitative survey results, and an unstructured qualitative approach to analyze the telephone interviews.

Results: We analyzed 141 survey responses, which correlated to a response rate of about 35% of all the providers reached, and 20 telephone interviews. Our results demonstrate that pediatric ED providers have some knowledge of our existing caregiver IPV screening program in the pediatric ED and universally endorse routine caregiver IPV screening, which both are suggestive of postimplementation cultural shifts. However, reported provider behaviors still indicate selective/targeted screening. For example, many providers reported screening males and nontraditional caregivers less often compared with female caregivers. Reported barriers potentially explaining such screening habits mirror those in existing literature: patient acuity, time, multiple caregivers being present, and more.

Conclusions: Our study indicates that more research must be done to assess root causes of provider barriers to IPV screening in pediatric ED settings because trainings and a long-standing program do not seem to be changing screening practices. Addressing these issues may lead to truly sustainable and effective IPV screening programs in pediatric ED settings.