Procuring records needed to conduct thorough child death reviews continues to be a significant challenge for the child fatality review teams . The specific challenges vary from one local area to another, but local teams mentioned problems with accessing hospital records, private physicians' records, death certificates, and law enforcement investigation reports, among others. Improvement was reported by some teams, but continued work is needed in this area.
Geographical boundaries are another challenge to obtaining needed information.
Accessing information about Arizona children who die in other states and countries continues to be a problem. As in past years, there continue to be large gaps in the data needed to help identify effective prevention strategies. For example, there is often no information reported on whether alcohol or other drugs were a factor in motor vehicle crashes . Important information on the baby's sleeping position is frequently missing in SIDS deaths . Whether smoke detectors were present and functional is often missing from reports of deaths related to smoke inhalation and burns.