State Spotlight - Arkansas


Last updated:  August 2012 

Pamela D. Tabor, DNP - Forensics, WHNP-BC, SANE-A
Director of Arkansas Infant & Child Death Review Program
Center for Applied Research & Evaluation
Arkansas Children’s Hospital
1 Children's Way, Slot 512-26
Little Rock, AR 72202-3591
Phone: 501-364-3389 or 1-866-611-3445
Fax: 501-364-1552
Email: PDTabor@uams.edu

Martin Maize, BBA
Coordinator of Arkansas Infant & Child Death Review Program
Arkansas Children’s Hospital
1 Children’s Way, Slot 512-26
Little Rock, AR 72202-3591
Phone: 501-364-3388 or 1-866-611-3445
Fax: 501-364-4111
Email: MOMaize@uams.edu

Website: http://www.accardv.uams.edu

Tools

Reports


Mortality Statistics

Program Description

Administration
The Arkansas Child Death Review (CDR) Panel was legislatively established through an unfunded mandate in 2005 as a committee within the Arkansas (AR) Commission on Child Abuse, Rape and Domestic Violence. The panel is required to include members from nine specific professions and may include additional professionals as needed. The AR CDR Panel provides oversight to the Arkansas Infant & Child Death Review Team (ICDR). Additionally, several members of the AR CDR Panel are also part of the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) External Child Death Review Team, which reviews deaths of children who have had contact with DCFS within 12 months of their death.

Teams
State Level: Arkansas Infant & Child Death Review Program
The AR Infant and Child Death Review (ICDR) Program is the intermediary between the AR CDR Panel and the local ICDR teams.  The program was established in 2011 and is funded through the Arkansas Department of Health (ADH).  The AR ICDR Program is coordinated by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Department of Pediatrics and the Injury Prevention Center at Arkansas Children’s Hospital. The AR ICDR Program is tasked with recruiting, establishing, training and providing technical assistance to local review teams across the state. 

The director of the AR ICDR Program is Dr. Pamela Tabor, who also serves on:

Arkansas Child Death Review Panel
Infant Mortality Action Group
Department of Children and Family Services External Death Review Team
Southeast Coalition on Child Fatality Review
Sudden Unexplained Infant Death Investigation trainer for the Arkansas Commission on Child Abuse, Rape and Domestic Violence
Arkansas Coroner’s Association
Injury Community Planning Group
The coordinator of the AR ICDR Program is Martin Maize, who also serves on:
Infant Mortality Action Group
Department of Children and Family Services External Death Review Team
Emergency Medical Services, Pediatrics
Southeast Coalition on Child Fatality Review
The AR ICDR Program also has a part-time Program Manager, Hope Mullins, from Arkansas Children’s Hospitals’ Injury Prevention Center, who oversees data and special projects.

Local Teams Local teams are comprised of multi-disciplinary professionals that systematically collect, analyze and discern child/family/agency factors that led to the infant/child’s death within the community. Currently there are three pilot teams in Arkansas covering ten counties. Each team has a director and coordinator and meets a minimum of four times per year and may hold additional meetings or trainings as necessary.

Reviews
To ensure that there is a coordinated response that fully addresses all programmatic concerns surrounding pediatric deaths in Arkansas, the AR Legislature granted the AR CDR Panel and designees the authority to gather all relevant records necessary for comprehensive reviews to be performed. All records obtained for reviews are confidential.

Exceptions to team reviews include cases that are currently under criminal investigation, prosecution or cases that have been adjudicated in a court of law. The AR ICDR Program is notified of deaths through the release of death information (and birth information if less than 12 months old) from the Arkansas Department of Health. The AR ICDR Program then determines which deaths that are ineligible for review (based on existing legislation) and forwards the remaining cases to the appropriate local team.

Purpose
The purpose of the AR ICDR Program is to improve the response to infant and child fatalities, provide accurate information on how and why AR children are dying and ultimately reduce the number of preventable pediatric deaths by establishing an effective review and standardized data collection system or all unexpected pediatric deaths.

Data
Three local teams have been established and active case reviews have been initiated. AR has a data use agreement with the Michigan Public Health Institute for internet-based data reporting and retrieval.

Annual Report
The AR ICDR Program will produce annual reports, with the inaugural annual report, fiscal year 2010-2011, posted above.

Prevention Initiatives
Local multi-disciplinary and multi-agency reviews of infant and child deaths assist in improving pediatric death investigations; developing a greater understanding of the incidence and causes of these deaths; identifying prevention strategies; and identifying gaps in services to children and families.

Protocols
The AR ICDR Program, with the consensus of the CDR Panel, has developed a Standard Operating Procedure Manual based on AR law, policy and best practices. Additionally the team members are provided with the National Center for the Review and Prevention of Child Deaths Manual. Confidentiality provisions are included in the enabling legislation.

Training
The AR ICDR Program is responsible for training the local ICDR teams.

Additionally, The Arkansas Commission on Child Abuse, Rape and Domestic Violence, in cooperation with the AR ICDR Program, the Arkansas Coroner’s Association and the Medical Examiner’s Office has provided three regional Sudden Unexplained Infant Death Investigation (SUIDI) trainings for coroners, deputy coroners and AR Crime Lab Investigators.