Logo

Log In Sign Up |  An official publication of: American College of Emergency Physicians
Navigation
  • Home
  • Multimedia
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
  • Clinical
    • Airway Managment
    • Case Reports
    • Critical Care
    • Guidelines
    • Imaging & Ultrasound
    • Pain & Palliative Care
    • Pediatrics
    • Resuscitation
    • Trauma & Injury
  • Resource Centers
    • mTBI Resource Center
  • Career
    • Practice Management
      • Benchmarking
      • Reimbursement & Coding
      • Care Team
      • Legal
      • Operations
      • Quality & Safety
    • Awards
    • Certification
    • Compensation
    • Early Career
    • Education
    • Leadership
    • Profiles
    • Retirement
    • Work-Life Balance
  • Columns
    • ACEP4U
    • Airway
    • Benchmarking
    • Brief19
    • By the Numbers
    • Coding Wizard
    • EM Cases
    • End of the Rainbow
    • Equity Equation
    • FACEPs in the Crowd
    • Forensic Facts
    • From the College
    • Images in EM
    • Kids Korner
    • Medicolegal Mind
    • Opinion
      • Break Room
      • New Spin
      • Pro-Con
    • Pearls From EM Literature
    • Policy Rx
    • Practice Changers
    • Problem Solvers
    • Residency Spotlight
    • Resident Voice
    • Skeptics’ Guide to Emergency Medicine
    • Sound Advice
    • Special OPs
    • Toxicology Q&A
    • WorldTravelERs
  • Resources
    • ACEP.org
    • ACEP Knowledge Quiz
    • Issue Archives
    • CME Now
    • Annual Scientific Assembly
      • ACEP14
      • ACEP15
      • ACEP16
      • ACEP17
      • ACEP18
      • ACEP19
    • Annals of Emergency Medicine
    • JACEP Open
    • Emergency Medicine Foundation
  • About
    • Our Mission
    • Medical Editor in Chief
    • Editorial Advisory Board
    • Awards
    • Authors
    • Article Submission
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Subscribe
    • Privacy Policy
    • Copyright Information

Rising Readmission Rates for Children with Complex Chronic Conditions

By Will Boggs, MD (Reuters Health) | on February 5, 2019 | 0 Comment
Latest News
  • Tweet
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
Print-Friendly Version

Pediatric hospitalization rates in the US declined between 2010 and 2016, but readmission rates increased, especially among children with complex chronic conditions, researchers report.

You Might Also Like
  • Value-Based Reforms Linked to Readmission Reductions
  • Acute Chest Syndrome in Pediatric Sickle-Cell Disease: Antibiotic Guidelines Matter
  • Acute Chest Syndrome in Pediatric Sickle-Cell Disease: Antibiotic Guidelines Matter

“Our findings highlight the need for more research on medical homes, care coordination, and chronic condition management for children with medical complexity, as this population is accounting for an increasing number of admissions and readmissions,” Dr. Emily M. Bucholz from Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts told Reuters Health.

“With the advent of accountable care organizations (ACOs) and the increasing emphasis on medical homes, pediatrics is certainly moving in this direction, but research on how to coordinate outpatient care and in-home services for this high-risk population is still relatively new,” she said in an email interview.

The percentage of US children without health insurance declined from 14.9 percent in 1997 to 4.8 percent in 2015, but there are few reports regarding trends in hospitalization and readmissions during that time.

Dr. Bucholz and colleagues used data from the 2010 to 2016 Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Nationwide Readmissions Database (NRD) and Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) to evaluate trends in patient- and hospital-level admissions and 30-day readmissions and compare differences in trends across patient and hospital characteristics.

The total number of pediatric admissions fell 21.3 percent (from 1.3 million to 1.0 million annually) from 2010 to 2016, with the complexity of admissions increasing over time. In 2010, 16.7 percent of admissions involved at least one complex chronic condition, versus 22.4 percent of admissions in 2016, according to the Pediatrics online report.

At the same time, overall pediatric 30-day readmission rates rose from 6.26 percent to 7.02 percent, an annual increase of 1.8 percent. This increase was associated with higher numbers of index admissions for children with chronic conditions, who have a higher risk of readmission than children without chronic conditions.

Risk-adjusted 30-day readmission rates increased across most hospital subgroups, with the exception of large hospitals (where rates remained stable) and metropolitan teaching hospitals (where rates decreased).

“This study and others show that the delivery of pediatric care in the U.S. is changing,” Dr. Bucholz said. “Not only is the complexity of admissions increasing, but care is also becoming more regionalized in large academic hospitals. As a result, pediatric readmissions appear to be increasing, but trends remain variable across patient and hospital subgroups.”

“Given this variability, there is a clear need for collaborative efforts across hospitals to identify best practices for reducing pediatric readmissions,” she said. “Understanding how readmission rates are changing and in what patient and hospital subgroups is the first step in informing efforts to reduce pediatric readmissions.”

Pages: 1 2 | Single Page

Topics: Hospital AdmissionsPediatricsreadmissions

Related

  • Case Report: When Syncope Gets Hairy

    June 17, 2025 - 0 Comment
  • Influenza, Muscle Pain, and an Elevated Serum Creatine Kinase

    May 10, 2025 - 0 Comment
  • When Do Pediatric Ventriculoperitoneal Shunts Fail?

    November 7, 2024 - 0 Comment

Current Issue

ACEP Now: June 2025 (Digital)

Read More

No Responses to “Rising Readmission Rates for Children with Complex Chronic Conditions”

Leave a Reply Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


*
*

Wiley
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy
  • Terms of Use
  • Advertise
  • Cookie Preferences
Copyright © 2025 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved, including rights for text and data mining and training of artificial technologies or similar technologies. ISSN 2333-2603