After a long search, University Hospitals has hired a pediatrician who specializes in child abuse and neglect.
Jennifer Johnson, executive director of Canopy Child Advocacy Center, spoke about the hiring at Wednesday’s meeting of the advisory board for Cuyahoga County’s Division of Child and Family Services.
On Friday, a UH spokesperson identified the new hire: Dr. Kristen Iniguez, who currently works in Wisconsin. She will join the UH staff in January 2025.
Johnson said half of the new doctor’s time will be spent working with Canopy, which coordinates investigations of suspected child abuse and neglect cases that are referred by DCFS or law enforcement.
The county has been without a child-abuse specialist for about two years. The position is supposed to be part of the Child Protection Team that was launched in 2023 after high-profile child deaths and amid reports that more children were dying in Cuyahoga County than in other counties in Ohio.
Last month, the DCFS advisory board urged the three local hospital systems to step up their efforts to fill the position. One member said it was “embarrassing that we don’t have the level of investment around this.”
The three hospitals — Cleveland Clinic, MetroHealth and UH — responded with a joint statement: “There is a shortage of pediatricians in this specialty, but we are hopeful to have a candidate in place by the end of the year.”
Cleveland Documenter Tina Scott has more from the Oct. 2 Cuyahoga County Children and Family Services Advisory Board:
- An average of one to two kids are staying overnight at the Jane Edna Hunter building, continuing a trend from earlier this year.
- Motivated and Empowered, Inc. will be opening a respite initiative in early 2025.
Iniguez is medical director of the Marshfield Child Advocacy Center in Marshfield, Wisconsin. According to her bio, she works with other physicians, social workers, a behavioral health therapist, child advocates, law enforcement officers and the local district attorney’s office on cases of abuse and neglect.
“I have a passion to help children, particularly those who have been abused or experienced other significant psychological trauma,” she said in the bio.
In an interview last month, Johnson explained the importance of finding a pediatrician who specializes in abuse.
“It’s really important to properly identify child abuse. It’s not easy to determine with young kids whether bruises or broken bones are a result of them being children – falling or running – or if it’s a direct result of child abuse,” Johnson said. “Very rarely is it clean cut.”
In 2023, roughly 9,500 cases in Cuyahoga County were screened for abuse and neglect, according to a report.
