Journal of hospital medicine : an official publication of the Society of Hospital Medicine
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Multicenter Study
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on hospitalizations of children with neurologic impairment.
Children with neurologic impairment (NI) are frequently hospitalized for infectious and noninfectious illnesses. The early period of the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with overall lower pediatric hospitalization rates, particularly for respiratory infections, but the effect on utilization for children with NI is unknown. ⋯ For children with NI, there was a substantial and significant decrease in hospitalizations for infectious and noninfectious diagnoses but an increase in illness severity during the early-COVID era compared with the pre-COVID era. Our data suggest a need to reconsider current thresholds for hospitalization and identify opportunities to support and guide families through certain illnesses without hospitalization.