• I-Chen Chen, Meng-Chieh Duh, Twei-Shiun Jaw, Yi-Ching Liu, Yen-Hsien Wu, Hsin-Ling Yin, and Jong-Hau Hsu.
• Department of Pediatrics, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan; Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan; Graduate Institute of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
• J Formos Med Assoc. 2022 Jun 1; 121 (6): 1111-1116.

Background/PurposeIdentifying child abuse is sometimes challenging due to its various presentations. To facilitate timely identification of critical or complex cases of physical abuse outside our child protection center, we established an outreach multidisciplinary team (OMDT) to support Kaohsiung City Government in 2014. The objective of this study was to describe our experience of OMDT services during a 6-year period and examine its role in assisting law enforcement.MethodsWe retrospectively analyzed all OMDT cases from January 2014 to January 2020. Clinical characteristics and OMDT reports were reviewed. After inspection by our OMDT, cases were determined as indicating either a high risk or low risk of child abuse. Associations among clinical characteristics, radiographic findings, OMDT decisions and case outcomes including law enforcement and prosecution were examined.ResultsThirty-two cases (22 [68.8%] males and 10 [31.2%] females; mean age 24.2 months) received OMDT service, of whom 28 (87.5%) were admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit. The victims had an average of 2.2 types of wounds in 3.4 locations. The most common finding on radiography was subdural hemorrhage (18, 56.3%), followed by subarachnoid hemorrhage (31, 31.3%). Law enforcement was activated in 20 (64.5%) cases, and was only associated with the high-risk group as determined by the OMDT (p < 0.05) but not with any other variables.ConclusionOur experience indicates that an OMDT can play an important role in child protection and activating law enforcement for children with complex or critical physical abuse. We suggest that in Taiwan, OMDT services should be incorporated into child protection centers, National Health Insurance system and governmental child protection policies.Copyright © 2021 Formosan Medical Association. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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