Outcomes and delivery of care in pediatric injury

• Published in: Journal of pediatric surgery 2006, Vol.41 (1), p.92-98
• Main Authors: Densmore, John C., Lim, Hyun J., Oldham, Keith T., Guice, Karen S.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Child; Child, Preschool; Databases, Factual; Emergency Service, Hospital - organization & administration; Emergency Service, Hospital - statistics & numerical data; Female; Hospital Mortality; Humans; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Length of Stay; Male; Outcome Assessment (Health Care) - statistics & numerical data; Pediatrics - organization & administration; Resource Allocation; Treatment Outcome; Triage; Wounds and Injuries - mortality; Wounds and Injuries - therapy
• ISSN: 0022-3468; 1531-5037
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpedsurg.2005.10.013

To design effective pediatric trauma care delivery systems, it is important to correlate site of care with corresponding outcomes. Using a multistate administrative database, we describe recent patient allocation and outcomes in pediatric injury. The 2000 Kids' Inpatient Database, containing 2,516,833 inpatient discharge records from 27 states, was filtered by E-code to yield pediatric injury cases. Injury Severity Scores (ISSs) were derived for each discharge using ICDMAP-90 (Tri-Analytics, Inc, Forest Hill, MD). After weighting to estimate national trends, cases were grouped by age (0-10, >10-20 years), ISS (≤15, >15), and National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions–designated site of care. Measured outcomes included mortality, length of stay, and total charges. Analysis was completed using Student's t test and χ 2. Among 79,673 injury cases, mean age was 12.2 ± 6.2 years and ISS was 7.4 ± 7.6. Eighty-nine percent of injured children received care outside of children's hospitals. In the subgroup of patients aged 0 to 10 years with ISS of greater than 15, the mean ISS for adult hospitals and children's hospitals was not significantly different (18.9 ± 9.1 vs. 19.4 ± 9.3, P = .08). However, in-hospital mortality, length of stay, and charges were all significantly higher in adult hospitals ( P < .0001). Younger and more seriously injured children have improved outcomes in children's hospitals. Appropriate triage may improve outcomes in pediatric trauma.