Given that the latest state report on child abuse shows the numbers are going down, it’s easy to assume everyone would be relieved. Unfortunately not. Doctors are raising serious red flags about how Pennsylvania’s narrow definition of child abuse is causing too many cases to go undetected, too many children unprotected.

Dr. Rachel Berger of the Children’s Advocacy Center of Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC wrote recently in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “We believe statistics about abuse and neglect of children in our state do not accurately reflect what our children are experiencing. And without reliable data, we cannot address the safety, health and vulnerability of Pennsylvania’s children.”

Given these concerns, the governor, legislators and Public Welfare Secretary Gary Alexander need to call for a closer look at the system to determine whether Pennsylvania needs to revamp the way it identifies child abuse.

Available information points to questions, at the least, about the state’s reporting system. Pennsylvania is well below other states and the national average when it comes to figures of investigated child abuse cases. In the commonwealth, 8.3 of every 1,000 children are involved in an abuse case. The national figure, however, is 40.3, according to the federal Administration for Children and Families.

The state also is below the national rate for children receiving child protective services, and there are questions about how the definition of child abuse is handled county by county. In sparsely populated Potter County, the rate of cases is 3.5 per 1,000 children yet in Dauphin County it is 1.5.

These numbers show a troubling pattern and require a fresh look at our system of tracking abuse. Especially, as Berger points out, when individual cases just don’t make sense. A baby suffers or even dies from abusive head trauma, but if there is no perpetrator determined, the child is not considered a victim of child abuse under Pennsylvania’s definition.

Physicians at Penn State, along with Penn State Dickinson School of Law, want to be sure doctors and others know enough about abuse to report it. They recently unveiled a new Look Out for Child Abuse website to provide one place where people who are required to report suspected child abuse can go for information on identifying abuse and reporting it. The site can be used by teachers, doctors, police, child care providers, clergy and nurses.

In addition, the creators are working with Cumberland County Children and Youth Services on a pilot program that allows electronic reporting of child abuse by those who are mandated to do so when they suspect seeing it. The hope is that if the process goes well in Cumberland County it can be used statewide.

As physicians and experts statewide question whether Pennsylvania has the right tools in place to stop child abuse, the new public welfare secretary and state officials should quickly assess if there is a serious problem with the state’s reporting system and make changes to better protect our children.