OBJECTIVES: To determine across and within hospital differences in the predictors of 365-day admission frequency for diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) in children at US children's hospitals.

STUDY DESIGN: Multicenter retrospective cohort analysis of 12 449 children 2-18 years of age with a diagnosis of DKA in 42 US children's hospitals between 2004 and 2012. The main outcome of interest was the maximum number of DKA admissions experienced by each child within any 365-day interval during a 5-year follow-up period. The association between patient characteristics and the maximum number of DKA admissions within a 365-day interval was examined across and within hospitals.

RESULTS: In the sample, 28.3% of patients admitted for DKA experienced at least 1 additional DKA admission within the following 365 days. Across hospitals, patient characteristics associated with increasing DKA admission frequency were public insurance (OR 1.97, 95% CI 1.71-2.26), non-Hispanic black race (OR 2.40, 95% CI 2.02-2.85), age ≥12 (OR 1.98, 95% CI 1.7-2.32), female sex (OR 1.41, 95% CI 1.29-1.55), and mental health comorbidity (OR 1.36, 95% CI 1.13-1.62). Within hospitals, non-Hispanic black race was associated with higher odds of 365-day admission in 59% of hospitals, and public insurance was associated with higher odds in 56% of hospitals. Older age, female sex, and mental health comorbidity were associated with higher odds of 365-day admission in 42%, 29%, and 15% of hospitals, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS: Across children's hospitals, certain patient characteristics are associated with more frequent DKA admissions. However, these factors are not associated with increased DKA admission frequency for all hospitals.

<p><strong>OBJECTIVE: </strong>To assess the performance of previously published high-intensity neurologic impairment (NI) diagnosis codes in identification of hospitalized children with clinical NI.</p>

<p><strong>METHODS: </strong>Retrospective study of 500 randomly selected discharges in 2019 from a freestanding children's hospital. All charts were reviewed for 1) NI discharge diagnosis codes and 2) documentation of clinical NI (a neurologic diagnosis and indication of functional impairment like medical technology). Test statistics of clinical NI were calculated for discharges with and without an NI diagnosis code. A sensitivity analysis varied the threshold for "substantial functional impairment." Secondary analyses evaluated misclassified discharges and a more stringent definition for NI.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>Diagnosis codes identified clinically documented NI with 88.1% (95% CI: 84.7, 91) specificity, and 79.4% (95% CI: 67.3, 88.5) sensitivity; NPV was 96.7% (95% CI: 94.8, 98.0), and PPV was 49% (95% CI: 42, 56.1). Including children with milder functional impairment (lower threshold) resulted in NPV of 95.7% and PPV of 77.5%. Restricting to children with more severe functional impairment (higher threshold) resulted in NPV of 98.2% and PPV of 44.1%. Misclassification was primarily due to inclusion of children without functional impairments. A more stringent NI definition including diagnosis codes for NI and feeding tubes had a specificity of 98.4% (95% CI: 96.7-99.3) and sensitivity of 28.6% (19.4-41.3).</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>All scenarios evaluated demonstrated high NPV and low-to-moderate PPV of the diagnostic code list. To maximize clinical utility, NI diagnosis codes should be used with strategies to mitigate the risk of misclassification.</p>

<p><strong>Importance: </strong>Identifying high priority pediatric conditions is important for setting a research agenda in hospital pediatrics that will benefit families, clinicians, and the health care system. However, the last such prioritization study was conducted more than a decade ago and used International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) codes.</p>

<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>To identify conditions that should be prioritized for comparative effectiveness research based on prevalence, cost, and variation in cost of hospitalizations using contemporary data at US children's hospitals.</p>

<p><strong>Design, Setting, and Participants: </strong>This retrospective cohort study of children with hospital encounters used data from the Pediatric Health Information System database. Children younger than 18 years with inpatient hospital encounters at 45 tertiary care US children's hospitals between January 1, 2016, and December 31, 2019, were included. Data were analyzed from March 2020 to April 2021.</p>

<p><strong>Main Outcomes and Measures: </strong>The condition-specific prevalence and total standardized cost, the corresponding prevalence and cost ranks, and the variation in standardized cost per encounter across hospitals were analyzed. The variation in cost was assessed using the number of outlier hospitals and intraclass correlation coefficient.</p>

<p><strong>Results: </strong>There were 2 882 490 inpatient hospital encounters (median [interquartile range] age, 4 [1-12] years; 1 554 024 [53.9%] boys) included. Among the 50 most prevalent and 50 most costly conditions (total, 74 conditions), 49 (66.2%) were medical, 15 (20.3%) were surgical, and 10 (13.5%) were medical/surgical. The top 10 conditions by cost accounted for $12.4 billion of $33.4 billion total costs (37.4%) and 592 815 encounters (33.8% of all encounters). Of 74 conditions, 4 conditions had an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of 0.30 or higher (ie, major depressive disorder: ICC, 0.49; type 1 diabetes with complications: ICC, 0.36; diabetic ketoacidosis: ICC, 0.33; acute appendicitis without peritonitis: ICC, 0.30), and 9 conditions had an ICC higher than 0.20 (scoliosis: ICC, 0.27; hypertrophy of tonsils and adenoids: ICC, 0.26; supracondylar fracture of humerus: ICC, 0.25; cleft lip and palate: ICC, 0.24; acute appendicitis with peritonitis: ICC, 0.21). Examples of conditions high in prevalence, cost, and variation in cost included major depressive disorder (cost rank, 19; prevalence rank, 10; ICC, 0.49), scoliosis (cost rank, 6; prevalence rank, 38; ICC, 0.27), acute appendicitis with peritonitis (cost rank, 13; prevalence rank, 11; ICC, 0.21), asthma (cost rank, 10; prevalence rank, 2; ICC, 0.17), and dehydration (cost rank, 24; prevalence rank, 8; ICC, 0.18).</p>

<p><strong>Conclusions and Relevance: </strong>This cohort study found that major depressive disorder, scoliosis, acute appendicitis with peritonitis, asthma, and dehydration were high in prevalence, costs, and variation in cost. These results could help identify where future comparative effectiveness research in hospital pediatrics should be targeted to improve the care and outcomes of hospitalized children.</p>

<p><strong>BACKGROUND: </strong>Tonsillectomy is one of the most common and cumulatively expensive surgical procedures in children. We determined if substantial variation in resource use, as measured by standardised costs, exists across hospitals for performing tonsillectomy and if higher resource use is associated with better quality of care, as measured by revisits to hospital.</p>

<p><strong>METHODS: </strong>We conducted a retrospective analysis of children undergoing routine outpatient tonsillectomy between 2011 to 2017 across US children's hospitals using an administrative and billing data source. The primary outcome measures were the hospital tonsillectomy standardised cost and the 30-day revisit rate to hospital. We analysed the interhospital variation in standardised cost by determining the number of outlier hospitals in standardised cost and the intraclass correlation coefficient.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>131 814 children (median age 6 years, IQR: 4,9; female sex 52.5%) underwent tonsillectomy for airway obstruction (62.9%) and infection (23.9%) across 28 hospitals. The median adjusted hospital standardised cost for tonsillectomy was $2392 (IQR: $1827, $2793; range: $1166 to $4222). There was substantial interhospital variation in costs as 11 (40%) hospitals were cost outliers, and the intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.62, suggesting that 62% of the variation in cost was attributable to variation between hospitals. The median hospital revisit rate was 9.5% (IQR: 7.8, 12.1) and higher hospital costs did not correlate with lower revisit rates ( =0.03, 95% CI -0.36 to 0.41; p=0.87).</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>There is substantial variation in hospital resource use and standardised costs for routine outpatient tonsillectomy across US children's hospitals. Higher resource use is not associated with lower revisit rates. Further study is needed to understand the practices of lower resource use hospitals who deliver high quality of care.</p>

<p><strong>BACKGROUND: </strong>We evaluated the impact of the 2011 Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society/Infectious Diseases Society of America pneumonia guideline and hospital-level implementation efforts on antibiotic prescribing for children hospitalized with pneumonia.</p>

<p><strong>METHODS: </strong>We assessed inpatient antibiotic prescribing for pneumonia at 28 children's hospitals between August 2009 and March 2015. Each hospital was also surveyed regarding local implementation efforts targeting antibiotic prescribing and organizational readiness to adopt guideline recommendations. To estimate guideline impact, we used segmented linear regression to compare the proportion of children receiving penicillins in March 2015 with the expected proportion at this same time point had the guideline not been published based on a projection of a preguideline trend. A similar approach was used to estimate the short-term (6-month) impact of local implementation efforts. The correlations between organizational readiness and the impact of the guideline were estimated by using Pearson's correlation coefficient.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>Before guideline publication, penicillin prescribing was rare (&lt;10%). After publication, an absolute increase in penicillin use was observed (27.6% [95% confidence interval: 23.7%-31.5%]) by March 2015. Among hospitals with local implementation efforts (n = 20, 71%), the median increase was 29.5% (interquartile range: 19.6%-39.1%) compared with 20.1% (interquartile rage: 9.5%-44.5%) among hospitals without such activities (P = .51). The independent, short-term impact of local implementation efforts was similar in magnitude to that of the national guideline. Organizational readiness was not correlated with prescribing changes.</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>The publication of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society/Infectious Diseases Society of America guideline was associated with sustained increases in the use of penicillins for children hospitalized with pneumonia. Local implementation efforts may have enhanced guideline adoption and appeared more relevant than hospitals' organizational readiness to change.</p>

<p><strong>BACKGROUND: </strong>Guidelines help inform standardization of care for quality improvement (QI). The Pediatric Research in Inpatient Settings network published a prioritization list of inpatient conditions with high prevalence, cost, and variation in resource utilization across children's hospitals. The methodological quality of guidelines for priority conditions is unknown.</p>

<p><strong>OBJECTIVE: </strong>To rate the methodological quality of national guidelines for 20 priority pediatric inpatient conditions.</p>

<p><strong>DESIGN: </strong>We searched sources including PubMed for national guidelines published from 2002 to 2012. Guidelines specific to 1 organism, test or treatment, or institution were excluded. Guidelines were rated by 2 raters using a validated tool (Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation) with an overall rating on a 7-point scale (7 = the highest). Inter-rater reliability was measured with a weighted kappa coefficient.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>Seventeen guidelines met inclusion criteria for 13 conditions; 7 conditions yielded no relevant national guidelines. The highest methodological-quality guidelines were for asthma, tonsillectomy, and bronchiolitis (mean overall rating 7, 6.5, and 6.5, respectively); the lowest were for sickle cell disease (2 guidelines) and dental caries (mean overall rating 4, 3.5, and 3, respectively). The overall weighted kappa was 0.83 (95% confidence interval 0.78-0.87).</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>We identified a group of moderate to high methodological-quality national guidelines for priority pediatric inpatient conditions. Hospitals should consider these guidelines to inform QI initiatives.</p>

<p><strong>OBJECTIVE: </strong>To determine whether dexamethasone use in children undergoing tonsillectomy is associated with increased risk of postoperative bleeding.</p>

<p><strong>STUDY DESIGN: </strong>Retrospective cohort study using a multihospital administrative database.</p>

<p><strong>SETTING: </strong>Thirty-six US children's hospitals.</p>

<p><strong>SUBJECTS: </strong>Children undergoing same-day tonsillectomy between the years 2004 and 2010.</p>

<p><strong>METHODS: </strong>We used discrete time failure models to estimate the daily hazards of revisits for bleeding (emergency department or hospital admission) up to 30 days after surgery as a function of dexamethasone use. Revisits were standardized for patient characteristics, antibiotic use, year of surgery, and hospital.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>Of 139,715 children who underwent same-day tonsillectomy, 97,242 (69.6%) received dexamethasone and 4182 (3.0%) had a 30-day revisit for bleeding. The 30-day cumulative standardized risk of revisits for bleeding was greater with dexamethasone use (3.11% vs 2.71%; standardized difference 0.40% [95% confidence interval, 0.13%-0.67%]; P = .003), and the increased risk was observed across all age strata. Dexamethasone use was associated with a higher standardized rate of revisits for bleeding in the postdischarge time periods of days 1 through 5 but not during the peak period for secondary bleeding, days 6 and 7.</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>In a real-world practice setting, dexamethasone use was associated with a small absolute increased risk of revisits for bleeding. However, the upper bound of this risk increase does not cross published thresholds for a minimal clinically important difference. Given the benefits of dexamethasone in reducing postoperative nausea and vomiting and the larger body of evidence from trials, these results support guideline recommendations for the routine use of dexamethasone.</p>

<p><strong>OBJECTIVE: </strong>To describe the quality of care for routine tonsillectomy at US children's hospitals.</p>

<p><strong>METHODS: </strong>We conducted a retrospective cohort study of low-risk children undergoing same-day tonsillectomy between 2004 and 2010 at 36 US children's hospitals that submit data to the Pediatric Health Information System Database. We assessed quality of care by measuring evidence-based processes suggested by national guidelines, perioperative dexamethasone and no antibiotic use, and outcomes, 30-day tonsillectomy-related revisits to hospital.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>Of 139,715 children who underwent same-day tonsillectomy, 10,868 (7.8%) had a 30-day revisit to hospital. There was significant variability in the administration of dexamethasone (median 76.2%, range 0.3%-98.8%) and antibiotics (median 16.3%, range 2.7%-92.6%) across hospitals. The most common reasons for revisits were bleeding (3.0%) and vomiting and dehydration (2.2%). Older age (10-18 vs 1-3 years) was associated with a greater standardized risk of revisits for bleeding and a lower standardized risk of revisits for vomiting and dehydration. After standardizing for differences in patients and year of surgery, there was significant variability (P &lt; .001) across hospitals in total revisits (median 7.8%, range 3.0%-12.6%), revisits for bleeding (median 3.0%, range 1.0%-8.8%), and revisits for vomiting and dehydration (median 1.9%, range 0.3%-4.4%).</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>Substantial variation exists in the quality of care for routine tonsillectomy across US children's hospitals as measured by perioperative dexamethasone and antibiotic use and revisits to hospital. These data on evidence-based processes and relevant patient outcomes should be useful for hospitals' tonsillectomy quality improvement efforts.</p>

<p><strong>OBJECTIVE: </strong>We sought to characterize variation in hospital resource utilization and readmission for diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) across US children's hospitals.</p>

<p><strong>METHODS: </strong>The study sample included a retrospective cohort of children aged 2 to 18 years with a diagnosis of DKA at 38 children's hospitals between 2004 and 2009. The main outcomes were resource utilization as determined by total standardized cost per hospitalization, overall and non-ICU length of stay (LOS), and readmission for DKA within 30 and 365 days.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>There were 24,890 DKA admissions, and 20.3% of these were readmissions within 1 year. The mean hospital-level total standardized cost was $7142 (range $4125-$11,916). The mean hospital-level LOS was 2.5 days (1.5-3.7), and the non-ICU portion was 1.9 days (0.7-2.7). The mean hospital-level readmission within 365 days was 18.7% (6.5%-41.1%) and within 30 days was 2.5% (0.0%-7.1%). Hospital bed days overall, and in particular the non-ICU portion, accounted for the majority of the total standardized cost per hospitalization (overall 57%; non-ICU 36%) and explained most of the variation in resource use. Even after adjusting for difference in patient characteristics across hospitals, widespread differences existed across hospitals in total standardized cost, LOS, and readmission rates (P &lt; .001).</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>Readmission for DKA within a year of hospitalization is common. US children's hospitals vary widely in resource use, hospital LOS, and readmission rates for patients with DKA. Our study highlights the need for additional research to understand these differences and to identify the most cost-effective strategies for managing diabetes across the continuum of care.</p>