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Child injury prevention has become an area of concern for Paynesville Area Hospital and our ambulance service. For the past two years, we have been checking the car seats for every newborn discharged from our facility. We are the only hospital in the state who provides this service. We also participate in prenatal classes doing brief educational information for expectant parents.
In addition to the hospital seat checks, we have offered two safety seat clinics and do ongoing inspections every other Monday evening by appointment. Total seats checked by our trained advocates has reached more than 250. Our upcoming plans are to teach and educate parents with children in Headstart, ECFE, Learning Readiness, and the lower elementary grades. We would like to see children kept in booster seats until approximately 80 pounds. The highest fatality rate is between the ages of four and eight years, because the law indicates they no longer need a car seat at that age.
PAHCS will be holding a child passenger safety clinic at Vern Johnson Motors on Saturday, Oct. 14, from 9 a.m. til noon. The event is being sponsored by Vern Johnson Motors, GM Motors, and Minnesota Safe Kids Buckle-Up Campaign. Several volunteers from the community will be helping with the event, including hospital and ambulance personnel and a Minn. state trooper. Vince and Larry, the crash test dummies, will also attend. Refreshments, brochures, goodie bags, and door prizes will be given away. Seat inspections will be done for all children under the age of 12. We are requesting that families preregister by calling PAHCS at 320-243-3779 and asking for the appointment desk between 8 a.m.-8 p.m., Monday-Friday.
New to our injury prevention program is bike safety and the use of bike helmets. A Bike Rodeo (shown pictured above) was held on Saturday, Sept. 23.
These events are supported financially by many local businesses, Paynesville Area Hospital, and through grant funding. We have received outstanding community support and would like to thank all who have helped make these projects a success!
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