State Spotlight - Maryland

Last updated:  March 2011

Joan Patterson, LCSW-C, Coordinator
State Child Fatality Review Team (SCFRT)
Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
CMCH State of Maryland
201 W. Preston St. Room 309
Baltimore, MD 21201
Phone: 410-767-6727
Fax: 410-333-5233
Email: Jpatterson@dhmh.state.md.us

Website: http://fha.maryland.gov/mch/cfr_home.cfm

Tools

Reports

Mortality Statistics Program Description

Administration
Maryland Senate Bill 464 created child fatality review, state and local Citizens Review Panels and the state CAN Council.  CFR is mandated but not funded.  The program was established by statute (Section 5-701 et seq.) in 1999. It is housed out of the Center for Maternal and Child Health (CMCH), Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. There is one employee at the state level. CMCH also administers the Fetal Infant Mortality Review (FIMR) program.

Teams
Maryland has both a state and local CFR teams which are mandatory in each county. CFR also serves as one of the three CAPTA Citizen Review Panels, the others being the State Council on Child Abuse and Neglect and the State Board of the Citizen’s Review Board for Children.

State Team Chairperson: Richard Lichenstein, MD
There are 25 members on the Maryland State Child Fatality Review Team (MSCFRT).  The Governor appoints the members which includes 11 citizens with expertise or interest in child safety or welfare, 12 representatives from state agencies and two pediatricians who are members of the American Academy of Pediatrics.  The team meets quarterly.  The state team created a policy manual of guidelines to assist local teams with the child fatality review process.

Local Teams:
Local teams are mandated to be multi-agency and multi-disciplinary. Maryland has 23 county based review teams and one city team (Baltimore).  Teams conduct retrospective/periodic reviews.  Local teams advocate at the local level through letters to the media and recommendations to agencies.  They also identify education and training needs at the local level.

Reviews
Maryland CFR teams review deaths to children ages 0-17.  Local teams may elect to review deaths up to 21 years of age. Teams review all causes of deaths from cases received from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (unusual and unexpected deaths).   

Purpose
The purpose of the Maryland CFR Program is prevention of child deaths.

Data
Reports are completed at the local level on the child deaths that are reviewed. A staff support person from the Center for Maternal and Child Health tabulates CFR reports and updates the State Team.  

Annual Report
Maryland CFR produces an annual report. The report is issued to the Governor, the General Assembly and state and local CFR members. 

Prevention Initiatives
CFR findings have motivated prevention activities in the areas of motor vehicle crashes, pool and lake drownings, house fires, SIDS, homicides, suicides and natural means.  

Training
Each year the State CFR Team conducts an annual meeting for training and education for local CFR team leadership.  The 2010 meeting presented a panel discussion on “Establishing an Effective Safe Sleep Program”, featuring experts from the Center for Infant and Child Loss and the Baltimore City Health Department. There were also presentations on “Data Driven Approaches to Crime and Traffic Safety”, and the “Logistics and Operation of a Crisis Intervention Program and a Suicide Hotline”. Local teams are encouraged to hold trainings on a variety of topics, especially on topics such as safe sleep, and team members are routinely given information about good resources, conferences and webinars available to them.  Sometimes locals teams organize trainings and invite other local teams to attend.