So, there are two perspectives to take into account.
The first is my practice. I do not CT scan patients who I think have rib fractures. There is no benefit to knowing as the treatment of a contusion or a fracture is completely and totallly pain relief. Some patients heal quicker than others and some dont. In my practice, as long as the patient can breathe comfortably, typically with the assistance of pain medicine, then I am fine with that. The only reason to do a CT scan would be if you think the underlying lung or a great vessel is injured.
Now, CT scans have radiation, and we are finding that multiple CT scans can have the equivalent radiation dose of what some of the survivors from Nagasaki and Hiroshima received. And as one would imagine, it results in lymphomas and other tumors later on down the line. So, CT scanning a kid of his age isnt in his best interest. They did it anyway, but so be it. Also, CT scans also miss non-displaced fractures as well in the acute setting (granted, nowhere near as awful as XRays are for the acute diagnosis). They had the benefit of a week of healing to occur and probably saw calluses forming over the ribs.
The second is the sox interests, since they needed to make a move. If you really wanted to know, you get a bone scan. That detects increased metabolism at the site of the fracture. But when the treatment is no different, what is the point? The sox needed an answer so they could make plans accordingly. But from a medical perspective, a bad rib contusion or a non-displaced fracture changes nothing in management, only how long you are out of commission. Hope that helped.