Increasing a hospital-based violence intervention program’s referrals for children and families in a pediatric emergency department

Our pediatric tertiary care hospital sees a high rate of firearm injuries. Hospital-based violence intervention programs (HVIPs) reduce violent injury recidivism rates in victims. However, significant gaps exist in the delivery of trauma-informed services to families. Our specific aim was to increase our HVIP referral rate by 20% over a 12-month time frame for children seen for interpersonal violence in the emergency department (ED).