A new meta-analysis published in the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery by a team of researchers from the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma (EAST) examined a growing body of research comparing HVIPs with standard care and found enough evidence to recommend the programs as a strategy to help reduce violent reinjury in cities. The study updates EAST’s earlier 2016 assessment, when researchers said there was not yet enough evidence to recommend adult-focused HVIPs, but a decade of additional research has changed that view: “The field has advanced significantly since the prior EAST guideline,” the authors wrote, adding that “the findings suggest that HVIPs are associated with reduced risk of violent reinjury across diverse HVIP strategies.” The full paper is worth your time, but here are some key findings:
- HVIPs Significantly Reduced The Odds Of Violent Reinjury Across 10 Studies. In the review’s quantitative analysis, “HVIP programs demonstrated a significant reduction in injury recidivism, as compared with standard care, with [ patients in the programs experiencing about 40% lower odds of violent reinjury] using a random effects model.” The researchers’ leave-one-out sensitivity analysis found that “the exclusion of each study did not alter the direction of the effect…”
- More Robust Programs, And Stronger Engagement, May Produce Better Results. While the researchers caution that “some studies showed strong protective effects…” they found that “more robust programs had favorable effects” and that the evidence overall “further support[s] urban HVIPs for violent reinjury recidivism mitigation.” The authors conclude that HVIP success “likely depends not only on program components, including connections with the community and personnel, but also on program intensity and participant engagement.”
- Researchers Now Recommend HVIPs At Urban Trauma Centers With Substantial Violent Injury. Based on the accumulated evidence, the researchers “conditionally recommend HVIP programs in urban trauma centers with substantive violent injury in adult-only or mixed adult-pediatric populations in the United States or Canada for the prevention of violent injury recidivism.” The recommendation reflects what the authors describe as “the best available evidence related to HVIPs in urban hospitals in the United States and Canada.”
Momentum For Hospital-Based Violence Intervention Programs Across The Country:
- In New Orleans Seeing “Encouraging Results” From Hospital-Based Violence Intervention Program. For Chief Healthcare Executive, Ron Southwick reports that University Medical Center New Orleans is “seeing encouraging results” from the violence intervention team that launched at the hospital about two years ago and “helps support victims and aims to help them recover and find a fresh start” from the moment they arrive at the hospital and after they return home. The team works alongside doctors and nurses, and program director Dr. Annelies De Wulf said having staff who can work with patients and families and “act almost as a liaison, has been incredible for reducing some of the hostility that can sometimes happen between medical teams and patients and their families.” De Wulf said the investment can pay off as well: hospitals “on average, recoup about 30% of the costs” of caring for gunshot victims, so “reducing even a few gunshot injuries in a year will pay off the program.”
- In Charlottesville, Virginia, New HVIP Supports Patients For Up To A Year After Discharge. For CBS19 News, Mark Gad reports that UVA Health “is taking a new approach to breaking the cycle of community violence through a new hospital-based violence intervention program designed to support victims long after they leave the hospital.” The program’s violence intervention specialists “meet with patients at bedside, offer emotional support… talk about how we can keep the patient safe, and then most importantly, how we can prevent re-injuring,” and can work with patients “up to a year after they discharge.” Specialists also help patients attend follow-up medical appointments and connect with community resources focused on long-term stability and safety. In a more recent report, Brittany Nash, a supervisor for the HVIP, explained to CBS19 that the team is also working with young people to stop conflicts from escalating: “The violence is a vicious cycle… [we] continuously check in with them just to help them be connected to whatever resources that they need.”
- In Louisville, Kentucky, HVIP Reached 83% Of Eligible Trauma Patients As Homicides And Shootings Fell In City. WAVE News reports that Louisville’s first annual Safe Louisville report highlights a “hospital-based violence intervention partnership with UofL Hospital’s Trauma Center,” where “83% of trauma patients injured by gunshots or stabbings tied to interpersonal violence were engaged with the program in 2025.” The partnership is part of a broader city strategy organized around “prevention, intervention and enforcement,” and the mayor’s office says Louisville saw a “22% decrease in homicides and a 28% drop in non-fatal shootings over the past year,” reaching “the lowest number of shootings in a decade.”