Inpatient growth and resource use in 28 children's hospitals: a longitudinal, multi-institutional study.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To compare inpatient resource use trends for healthy children and children with chronic health conditions of varying degrees of medical complexity.

Design

Retrospective cohort analysis.

Setting

Twenty-eight US children's hospitals.

Patients

A total of 1 526 051 unique patients hospitalized from January 1, 2004, through December 31, 2009, who were assigned to 1 of 5 chronic condition groups using 3M's Clinical Risk Group software.

Intervention

None.

Main outcome measures

Trends in the number of patients, hospitalizations, hospital days, and charges analyzed with linear regression.

Results

Between 2004 and 2009, hospitals experienced a greater increase in the number of children hospitalized with vs without a chronic condition (19.2%

SUBMITTER: Berry JG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3663043 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature