• Fran Balamuth, Scott L Weiss, Mark I Neuman, Halden Scott, Patrick W Brady, Raina Paul, Reid W D Farris, Richard McClead, Katie Hayes, David Gaieski, Matt Hall, Samir S Shah, and Elizabeth R Alpern.
• 1Department of Pediatrics, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA. 2Division of Emergency Medicine and Center for Pediatric Clinical Effectiveness, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA. 3Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA. 4Division of Critical Care, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA. 5Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA. 6Division of Emergency Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA. 7Department of Pediatrics, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO. 8Section of Emergency Medicine, Children's Hospital Colorado, Aurora, CO. 9Division of Hospitalist Medicine, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH. 10Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH. 11Division of Emergency Medicine, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, Winston-Salem, NC. 12Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA. 13Division of Critical Care Medicine, Children's Hospital Seattle, Seattle, WA. 14Department of Pediatrics, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, OH. 15Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH. 16Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA. 17Department of Analytics, Children's Hospital Association, Washington, DC. 18Division of Infectious Diseases, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH. 19Department of Pediatrics, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL. 20Division of Emergency Medicine, Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, Chicago, IL.
• Pediatr Crit Care Me. 2014 Nov 1; 15 (9): 798805798-805.

ObjectivesTo compare the prevalence, resource utilization, and mortality for pediatric severe sepsis identified using two established identification strategies.DesignObservational cohort study from 2004 to 2012.SettingForty-four pediatric hospitals contributing data to the Pediatric Health Information Systems database.PatientsChildren 18 years old or younger.Measurements And Main ResultsWe identified patients with severe sepsis or septic shock by using two International Classification of Diseases, 9th edition, Clinical Modification-based coding strategies: 1) combinations of International Classification of Diseases, 9th edition, Clinical Modification codes for infection plus organ dysfunction (combination code cohort); 2) International Classification of Diseases, 9th edition, Clinical Modification codes for severe sepsis and septic shock (sepsis code cohort). Outcomes included prevalence of severe sepsis, as well as hospital and ICU length of stay, and mortality. Outcomes were compared between the two cohorts examining aggregate differences over the study period and trends over time. The combination code cohort identified 176,124 hospitalizations (3.1% of all hospitalizations), whereas the sepsis code cohort identified 25,236 hospitalizations (0.45%), a seven-fold difference. Between 2004 and 2012, the prevalence of sepsis increased from 3.7% to 4.4% using the combination code cohort and from 0.4% to 0.7% using the sepsis code cohort (p < 0.001 for trend in each cohort). Length of stay (hospital and ICU) and costs decreased in both cohorts over the study period (p < 0.001). Overall, hospital mortality was higher in the sepsis code cohort than the combination code cohort (21.2% [95% CI, 20.7-21.8] vs 8.2% [95% CI, 8.0-8.3]). Over the 9-year study period, there was an absolute reduction in mortality of 10.9% (p < 0.001) in the sepsis code cohort and 3.8% (p < 0.001) in the combination code cohort.ConclusionsPrevalence of pediatric severe sepsis increased in the studied U.S. children's hospitals over the past 9 years, whereas resource utilization and mortality decreased. Epidemiologic estimates of pediatric severe sepsis varied up to seven-fold depending on the strategy used for case ascertainment.

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