Trends in Intravenous Magnesium Use and Outcomes for Status Asthmaticus in Children's Hospitals from 2010 to 2017.

2020

403-406

2020 07 01

1553-5606

<p>Intravenous (IV) magnesium is used as an adjunct therapy in management of status asthmaticus with a goal of reducing intubation rate. A recent review suggests that IV magnesium use in status asthmaticus reduces admission rates. This is contrary to the observation of practicing emergency room physicians. The goal of this study was to assess trends in IV magnesium use for status asthmaticus in US children's hospitals over 8 years through a retrospective analysis of children younger than 18 years using the Pediatric Health Information System database. Outcomes were IV magnesium use, inpatient and intensive care unit admission rate, geometric mean length of stay, and 7-day all-cause readmission rate. IV magnesium use for asthma hospitalization more than doubled over 8 years (17% vs. 36%; P &lt; .001). Yearly trends were not significantly associated with hospital or intensive care unit admission rate or 7-day all-cause readmissions, although length of stay was reduced (P &lt; .001).</p>

10.12788/jhm.3405

J Hosp Med

32584247

Trends in Length of Stay and Readmissions in Children's Hospitals.

2021

2021 May 04

2154-1671

<p><strong>BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: </strong>Patient complexity at US children's hospitals is increasing. Hospitals experience concurrent pressure to reduce length of stay (LOS) and readmissions, yet little is known about how these common measures of resource use and quality have changed over time. Our aim was to examine temporal trends in medical complexity, hospital LOS, and readmissions across a sample of US children's hospitals.</p>

<p><strong>METHODS: </strong>Retrospective cohort study of hospitalized patients from 42 children's hospitals in the Pediatric Health Information System from 2013 to 2017. After excluding deaths, healthy newborns, obstetric care, and low volume service lines, we analyzed trends in medical complexity, LOS, and 14-day all-cause readmissions using generalized linear mixed effects models, adjusting for changes in patient factors and case-mix.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>Between 2013 and 2017, a total of 3 355 815 discharges were included. Over time, the mean case-mix index and the proportion of hospitalized patients with complex chronic conditions or receiving intensive care increased ( &lt; .001 for all). In adjusted analyses, mean LOS declined 3% (61.1 hours versus 59.3 hours from 2013 to 2017, &lt; .001), whereas 14-day readmissions were unchanged (7.0% vs 6.9%; = .03). Reductions in adjusted LOS were noted in both medical and surgical service lines (3.6% and 2.0% decline, respectively; &lt; .001).</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>Across US children's hospitals, adjusted LOS declined whereas readmissions remained stable, suggesting that children's hospitals are providing more efficient care for an increasingly complex patient population.</p>

10.1542/hpeds.2020-004044

Hosp Pediatr

33947746

Readmissions Following Hospitalization for Infection in Children With or Without Medical Complexity.

2021

134-141

2021 Mar

1553-5606

<p><strong>OBJECTIVE: </strong>To describe the prevalence and characteristics of infection-related readmissions in children and to identify opportunities for readmission reduction and estimate associated cost savings.</p>

<p><strong>STUDY DESIGN: </strong>Retrospective analysis of 380,067 nationally representative index hospitalizations for children using the 2014 Nationwide Readmissions Database. We compared 30-day, all-cause unplanned readmissions and costs across 22 infection categories. We used the Inpatient Essentials database to measure hospital-level readmission rates and to establish readmission benchmarks for individual infections. We then estimated the number of readmissions avoided and costs saved if hospitals achieved the 10th percentile of hospitals' readmission rates (ie, readmission benchmark). All analyses were stratified by the presence/absence of a complex chronic condition (CCC).</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>The overall 30-day readmission rate was 4.9%. Readmission rates varied substantially across infections and by presence/absence of a CCC (CCC: range, 0%-21.6%; no CCC: range, 1.5%-8.6%). Approximately 42.6% of readmissions (n = 3,576) for children with a CCC and 54.7% of readmissions (n = 5,507) for children without a CCC could have been potentially avoided if hospitals achieved infection-specific benchmark readmission rates, which could result in an estimated savings of $70.8 million and $44.5 million, respectively. Bronchiolitis, pneumonia, and upper respiratory tract infections were among infections with the greatest number of potentially avoidable readmissions and cost savings for children with and without a CCC.</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSION: </strong>Readmissions following hospitalizations for infection in children vary significantly by infection type. To improve hospital resource use for infections, future preventative measures may prioritize children with complex chronic conditions and those with specific diagnoses (eg, respiratory illnesses).</p>

10.12788/jhm.3505

J Hosp Med

33617439

Hospitals' Diversity of Diagnosis Groups and Associated Costs of Care.

2021

2021 Feb 24

1098-4275

<p><strong>BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: </strong>Hospitals treating patients with greater diagnosis diversity may have higher fixed and overhead costs. We assessed the relationship between hospitals' diagnosis diversity and cost per hospitalization for children.</p>

<p><strong>METHODS: </strong>Retrospective analysis of 1 654 869 all-condition hospitalizations for children ages 0 to 21 years from 2816 hospitals in the Kids' Inpatient Database 2016. Mean hospital cost per hospitalization, Winsorized and log-transformed, was assessed for freestanding children's hospitals (FCHs), nonfreestanding children's hospitals (NFCHs), and nonchildren's hospitals (NCHs). Hospital diagnosis diversity index (HDDI) was calculated by using the D-measure of diversity in Shannon-Wiener entropy index from 1254 diagnosis and severity-of-illness groups distinguished with 3M Health's All Patient Refined Diagnosis Related Groups. Log-normal multivariable models were derived to regress hospital type on cost per hospitalization, adjusting for hospital-level HDDI in addition to patient-level demographic (eg, age, race and ethnicity) and clinical (eg, chronic conditions) characteristics and hospital teaching status.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>Admission counts were 383 789 (23.2%) in FCHs, 588 463 (35.6%) in NFCHs, and 682 617 (41.2%) in NCHs. Unadjusted mean cost per hospitalization was $10 757 (95% confidence interval [CI]: $9451 to $12 243) in FCHs, $6264 (95% CI: $5830 to $6729) in NFCHs, and $4192 (95% CI: $4121 to $4265) in NCHs. HDDI was significantly ( &lt; .001) higher in FCHs and NFCHs (median 9.2 and 6.4 times higher, respectively) than NCHs. Across all hospitals, greater HDDI was associated ( = .002) with increased cost. Adjusting for HDDI resulted in a nonsignificant ( = .1) difference in cost across hospital types.</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>Greater diagnosis diversity was associated with increased cost per hospitalization and should be considered when assessing associated costs of inpatient care for pediatric patients.</p>

10.1542/peds.2020-018101

Pediatrics

33627373

Poverty and Targeted Immunotherapy: Survival in Children's Oncology Group Clinical Trials for High-Risk Neuroblastoma.

2020

2020 Nov 24

1460-2105

<p><strong>BACKGROUND: </strong>Whether social determinants of health are associated with survival in the context of pediatric oncology-targeted immunotherapy trials is not known. We examined the association between poverty and event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS) for children with high-risk neuroblastoma treated in targeted immunotherapy trials.</p>

<p><strong>METHODS: </strong>We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 371 children with high-risk neuroblastoma treated with GD2-targeted immunotherapy in the Children's Oncology Group trial ANBL0032 or ANBL0931 at a Pediatric Health Information System center from 2005 to 2014. Neighborhood poverty exposure was characterized a priori as living in a zip code with a median household income within the lowest quartile for the cohort. Household poverty exposure was characterized a priori as sole coverage by public insurance. Post hoc analyses examined the joint effect of neighborhood and household poverty using a common reference. All statistical tests were 2-sided.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>In multivariable Cox regressions adjusted for disease and treatment factors, household poverty-exposed children experienced statistically significantly inferior EFS (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.90, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.28 to 2.82, P = .001) and OS (HR = 2.79, 95% CI = 1.63 to 4.79, P &lt; .001) compared with unexposed children. Neighborhood poverty was not independently associated with EFS or OS. In post hoc analyses exploring the joint effect of neighborhood and household poverty, children with dual-poverty exposure (neighborhood poverty and household poverty) experienced statistically significantly inferior EFS (HR = 2.21, 95% CI = 1.48 to 3.30, P &lt; .001) and OS (HR = 3.70, 95% CI = 2.08 to 6.59, P &lt; .001) compared with the unexposed group.</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>Poverty is independently associated with increased risk of relapse and death among neuroblastoma patients treated with targeted immunotherapy. Incorporation of social and environmental factors in future trials as health-care delivery intervention targets may increase the benefit of targeted therapies.</p>

10.1093/jnci/djaa107

J Natl Cancer Inst

33227816

Observation Encounters and Length of Stay Benchmarking in Children's Hospitals.

2020

2020 Oct 06

1098-4275

<p><strong>BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: </strong>Length of stay (LOS) is a common benchmarking measure for hospital resource use and quality. Observation status (OBS) is considered an outpatient service despite the use of the same facilities as inpatient status (IP) in most children's hospitals, and LOS calculations often exclude OBS stays. Variability in the use of OBS by hospitals may significantly impact calculated LOS. We sought to determine the impact of including OBS in calculating LOS across children's hospitals.</p>

<p><strong>METHODS: </strong>Retrospective cohort study of hospitalized children (age &lt;19 years) in 2017 from the Pediatric Health Information System (Children's Hospital Association, Lenexa, KS). Normal newborns, transfers, deaths, and hospitals not reporting LOS in hours were excluded. Risk-adjusted geometric mean length of stay (RA-LOS) for IP-only and IP plus OBS was calculated and each hospital was ranked by quintile.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>In 2017, 45 hospitals and 625 032 hospitalizations met inclusion criteria (IP = 410 731 [65.7%], OBS = 214 301 [34.3%]). Across hospitals, OBS represented 0.0% to 60.3% of total discharges. The RA-LOS (SD) in hours for IP and IP plus OBS was 75.2 (2.6) and 54.3 (2.7), respectively ( &lt; .001). For hospitals reporting OBS, the addition of OBS to IP RA-LOS calculations resulted in a decrease in RA-LOS compared with IP encounters alone. Three-fourths of hospitals changed ≥1 quintile in LOS ranking with the inclusion of OBS.</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>Children's hospitals exhibit significant variability in the assignment of OBS to hospitalized patients and inclusion of OBS significantly impacts RA-LOS calculations. Careful consideration should be given to the inclusion of OBS when determining RA-LOS for benchmarking, quality and resource use measurements.</p>

10.1542/peds.2020-0120

Pediatrics

33023992

Hospitalization Outcomes for Rural Children with Mental Health Conditions.

2020

2020 Sep 30

1097-6833

<p><strong>OBJECTIVE: </strong>To identify where rural children with mental health conditions are hospitalized and to determine differences in outcomes based upon location of hospitalization.</p>

<p><strong>STUDY DESIGN: </strong>Retrospective cohort analysis of US rural children aged 0-18 years with a mental health hospitalization between January 1, 2014, and November 30, 2014, using the 2014 Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's Nationwide Readmissions Database. Hospitalizations for rural children were categorized to children's hospitals, metropolitan non-children's hospitals, or rural hospitals. Associations between hospital location and outcomes were assessed with logistic (readmission) and negative binomial regression (length of stay (LOS)) models. Classification and regression trees (CART) describe characteristics of most common hospitalizations at a rural hospital.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>Of 21,666 mental health hospitalizations of rural children, 20.6% were at rural hospitals. After adjustment for clinical and demographic characteristics, LOS was higher at metropolitan non-children's and children's hospitals compared with rural hospitals [LOS: adjusted rate ratio (aRR) 1.35 (95% CI 1.29, 1.41) and aRR 1.33 (95% CI 1.25, 1.41); all P &lt; .01]. 30-day readmission was lower at metropolitan non-children's and children's hospitals compared with rural hospitals [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 0.73 (95% CI 0.63, 0.84) and aOR 0.59 (95% CI 0.48, 0.71); all p&lt;0.001]. Adolescent males living in poverty with externalizing behavior disorder had the highest percentage (69.4%) of hospitalization at rural hospitals.</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>Although hospitalizations at children's and metropolitan non-children's hospitals were longer, patient outcomes were more favorable.</p>

10.1016/j.jpeds.2020.09.067

33010261

Costs and Reimbursements for Mental Health Hospitalizations at Children's Hospitals.

2020

2020 May 21

1553-5606

<p>The financial impact of the rising number of pediatric mental health hospitalizations is unknown. Therefore, this study assessed costs, reimbursements, and net profits or losses for 111,705 mental health and non-mental health medical hospitalizations in children's hospitals with use of the Pediatric Health Information System and Revenue Management Program. Average financial margins were calculated as (reimbursement per day) - (cost per day), and they were lowest for mental health hospitalizations ($136/day), next lowest for suicide attempt ($518/day), and highest for other medical hospitalizations ($611/day). For 10 of 17 hospitals, margin per day for mental health hospitalizations was lower than margin per day for other medical hospitalizations. For these 10 hospitals, the total net loss for inpatient and observation status mental health hospitalizations, compared with other medical hospitalizations, was $27 million (median, $2.2 million per hospital). Financial margins were usually lower for mental health vs non-mental health medical hospitalizations.</p>

10.12788/jhm.3411

J Hosp Med

32496188

The impact of donor type on outcomes and cost of allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant for pediatric leukemia: a merged CIBMTR and PHIS analysis: Pediatric acute leukemia transplant risks and utilization.

2020

2020 May 25

1523-6536

<p><strong>IMPORTANCE: </strong>AlloHCT may be associated with significant morbidity and mortality that result in increased healthcare utilization. To date, no multi-center comparative cost analyses have been performed specifically evaluating alloHCT in children with acute leukemia.</p>

<p><strong>OBJECTIVES: </strong>To describe the relationship between survival and healthcare utilization while investigating the hypothesis that matched sibling donor (MSD) alloHCT has significantly lower inpatient healthcare utilization compared to unrelated donor (URD) and that among URD, umbilical cord blood transplants (UCB) will have higher initial but lower long-term utilization.</p>

<p><strong>DESIGN: </strong>Retrospective cohort study Setting: Clinical and transplant outcomes data from the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR) were merged with inpatient cost data from the Pediatric Health Information System (PHIS) database using a probabilistic merge methodology.</p>

<p><strong>PARTICIPANTS: </strong>The merged dataset contained U.S. patients age 1-21 years who received alloHCT for acute leukemia from 2004-2011 with comprehensive CIBMTR data at a PHIS hospital.</p>

<p><strong>EXPOSURE: </strong>AlloHCT analyzed by donor type with specific analysis of utilization and costs using PHIS claims data.</p>

<p><strong>MAIN OUTCOME: </strong>The primary outcomes of overall survival (OS), leukemia free survival (LFS), and inpatient costs were evaluated using Kaplan-Meier curves, Cox, and Poisson models.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>632 patients were identified in both CIBMTR and PHIS. 5-year LFS was 60% for MSD, 47% for well-matched matched unrelated donor bone marrow (MUD), 48% for mismatched unrelated donor, and 45% for UCB (p=0.09). Total adjusted costs were significantly lower for MSD versus MUD by day 100 (adjusted cost ratio (ACR) 0.73, CI 0.62-0.86, p&lt;0.001), and higher for UCB versus MUD (ACR 1.27, CI 1.11-1.45, p&lt;0.001). By 2yrs, total adjusted costs remained significantly lower for MSD when compared to MUD (ACR 0.67, CI 0.56-0.81, p&lt;0.001) and higher for UCB compared to MUD (ACR 1.25, 95% CI 1.02-1.52, p=0.0280).</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>UCB and MUD alloHCT provide similar survival outcomes; however, MUD alloHCT has a significant advantage in cost by day 100 and 2 years. Ongoing research is needed to determine if the cost difference among URD alloHCT remains significant with a larger sample size and/or beyond the 2 years following alloHCT.</p>

10.1016/j.bbmt.2020.05.016

Biol. Blood Marrow Transplant.

32464284

Room Costs for Common Pediatric Hospitalizations and Cost-Reducing Quality Initiatives.

2020

2020 May 04

1098-4275

<p><strong>BACKGROUND: </strong>Improvement initiatives promote safe and efficient care for hospitalized children. However, these may be associated with limited cost savings. In this article, we sought to understand the potential financial benefit yielded by improvement initiatives by describing the inpatient allocation of costs for common pediatric diagnoses.</p>

<p><strong>METHODS: </strong>This study is a retrospective cross-sectional analysis of pediatric patients aged 0 to 21 years from 48 children's hospitals included in the Pediatric Health Information System database from January 1, 2017, to December 31, 2017. We included hospitalizations for 8 common inpatient pediatric diagnoses (seizure, bronchiolitis, asthma, pneumonia, acute gastroenteritis, upper respiratory tract infection, other gastrointestinal diagnoses, and skin and soft tissue infection) and categorized the distribution of hospitalization costs (room, clinical, laboratory, imaging, pharmacy, supplies, and other). We summarized our findings with mean percentages and percent of total costs and used mixed-effects models to account for disease severity and to describe hospital-level variation.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>For 195 436 hospitalizations, room costs accounted for 52.5% to 70.3% of total hospitalization costs. We observed wide hospital-level variation in nonroom costs for the same diagnoses (25%-81% for seizure, 12%-51% for bronchiolitis, 19%-63% for asthma, 19%-62% for pneumonia, 21%-78% for acute gastroenteritis, 21%-63% for upper respiratory tract infection, 28%-69% for other gastrointestinal diagnoses, and 21%-71% for skin and soft tissue infection). However, to achieve a cost reduction equal to 10% of room costs, large, often unattainable reductions (&gt;100%) in nonroom cost categories are needed.</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>Inconsistencies in nonroom costs for similar diagnoses suggest hospital-level treatment variation and improvement opportunities. However, individual improvement initiatives may not result in significant cost savings without specifically addressing room costs.</p>

10.1542/peds.2019-2177

Pediatrics

32366609