Child Fatality Review (CFR) is an established public health process in the United States. In Washington state, RCW 70.05.170 authorizes local health jurisdictions to conduct fatality reviews for deaths among children under 18 years of age. Spokane Regional Health District’s (SRHD) Child Fatality Review (CFR) is a multidisciplinary review of individual child deaths to enhance understanding of why Spokane County’s children die and inform effective prevention of future child injury and mortality.
To inform local injury and violence prevention efforts, SRHD’s CFR reviews the unexpected deaths of Spokane County residents that occurred after live birth and before age 18 due to external, non-natural causes. This includes infant, child and adolescent deaths caused by suicide, homicide, sudden unexpected infant death (SUID), unintentional overdose, motor vehicle collisions, falls, fires, drowning, unintentional firearm related injuries, and other means of injury.
At a basic level, the CFR process includes three steps, identification, review, and prevention.
Spokane Regional Health District (SRHD) identifies cases
SRHD prepares case summaries
Child Fatality Case Review Panel (CFCRP) discusses each case and identifies findings about risk factors, protective factors, and preventability of death
Recommendations Committee (RC) identities 3 priority prevention recommendations annually
Prevention Action Teams (PATs) formulate and carry out action plans to implement each prevention recommendation
CFR is not intended to be punitive in any way toward individuals, communities, agencies, or families. It is not focused on identifying what caused or contributed to a death so that individuals or groups can be held accountable; there are other processes for that. Instead, the purpose of CFR is to increase understanding to accurately identify findings that can be used to improve local public health prevention efforts.
These seven key principles from the National Center for Fatality Review and Prevention guide SRHD’s CFR:
For more information about the purpose, principles, and process of SRHD’s CFR, watch the following video or see the SRHD Child Fatality Review fact sheet.
The technical support and data center serving Child Death Review (CDR) and Fetal and Infant Mortality Review (FIMR) programs throughout the United States.
The Washington State Department of Health supports local health jurisdictions with Child Fatality Review programs across the state.
CFR is authorized by a state law in Washington.
