Stopping injuries before they happen is the goal of University Health System’s Adult & Pediatric Injury Prevention Program. Whether it involves distributing car seats and boosters (and making sure they’re installed properly), educating the community on the hazards of impaired and distracted driving, or working with the elderly to prevent falls, our injury prevention team is a critical piece of our Level I trauma programs.
In 2016, the J.C. Montgomery Jr. Child Safety Award was presented to Safe Kids San Antonio, a group led by University Health System. The award, by the Texas Office for Prevention of Developmental Disabilities and the Child Safety Task Force, recognizes people and groups that “exemplify innovation, efficacy, community involvement and dedication to the safety of all children.” Safe Kids San Antonio was nominated for the award by state Sen. José Menéndez. Safe Kids San Antonio was recognized for its Buckle UP program, which provides child passenger safety education and car seats or boosters to at-risk families in Bexar and surrounding counties. The program has several components in which certified technicians offer free child safety seat checks in the community, work with families of babies in University Hospital’s newborn nursery and NICU, teach a Car Seat 101 class to expectant parents attending the Baby U program, and work with pediatric patients in the hospital’s trauma, orthopedic and pediatric floors who might need adaptive seats. Last year, the Buckle UP program educated more than 6,100 people on car seat safety, installed 1,948 car seats and boosters, distributed 1,124 seats to individuals and families, and hosted community car seat events that included special programs for refugee communities and the military, along with the general public. The Safe Kids San Antonio program provided a number of injury prevention initiatives that reached 31,995 people in our community in 2017. In addition to the child passenger safety campaign, those programs included bike safety, burn prevention, home, medication and pedestrian safety. Adult programs, which reached 5,863 people in 2017, included older adult fall awareness and prevention, CarFit checks, distracted and impaired driving awareness, and home and medication safety.