• Matthew P Kronman, Matthew Hall, Anthony D Slonim, and Samir S Shah.
• Divisions of General Pediatrics and Infectious Diseases, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
• Pediatrics. 2008 Jun 1; 121 (6): e1653-9.

ObjectiveThe purpose of this work was to determine the excess charges, both overall and according to category, and lengths of stay attributable to adverse patient-care events during pediatric hospitalization.MethodsAgency for Healthcare Research and Quality pediatric-specific quality indicators were used to identify adverse events in 431524 discharges from 38 freestanding, academic, not-for-profit, tertiary care pediatric hospitals in the United States participating in the Pediatric Health Information System database in 2006. All of the discharges from any of the 38 hospitals participating in the Pediatric Health Information System between January 1 and December 31, 2006, were eligible for inclusion. The primary outcomes were excess lengths of stay and charges (both overall and according to pharmacy, laboratory, imaging, clinical, supply, and other categories) were attributable to adverse patient-safety events as determined by 12 pediatric-specific quality indicators.ResultsStatistically significant excess lengths of stay attributable to pediatric-specific quality indicator events ranged from 2.8 days for accidental puncture and laceration to 23.5 days for postoperative sepsis, and statistically significant excess overall charges ranged from $34884 for accidental puncture and laceration to $337226 for in-hospital mortality after pediatric heart surgery. Each charge category had significant charge increases caused by pediatric-specific quality indicator events, with the largest being laboratory and other charges, ranging from $7622 to $78048 and $11094 to $97805, respectively.ConclusionsSome adverse events experienced during pediatric hospitalization have the potential to increase lengths of stay and charges considerably, and pediatric-specific quality indicators are useful in calculating these effects.

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