6 research outputs found

    Patientâ level Factors and the Quality of Care Delivered in Pediatric Emergency Departments

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    ObjectiveQuality of care delivered to adult patients in the emergency department (ED) is often associated with demographic and clinical factors such as a patient’s race/ethnicity and insurance status. We sought to determine whether the quality of care delivered to children in the ED was associated with a variety of patientâ level factors.MethodsThis was a retrospective, observational cohort study. Pediatric patients (<18 years) who received care between January 2011 and December 2011 at one of 12 EDs participating in the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) were included. We analyzed demographic factors (including age, sex, and payment source) and clinical factors (including triage, chief complaint, and severity of illness). We measured quality of care using a previously validated implicit review instrument using chart review with a summary score that ranged from 5 to 35. We examined associations between demographic and clinical factors and quality of care using a hierarchical multivariable linear regression model with hospital site as a random effect.ResultsIn the multivariable model, among the 620 ED encounters reviewed, we did not find any association between patient age, sex, race/ethnicity, and payment source and the quality of care delivered. However, we did find that some chief complaint categories were significantly associated with lower than average quality of care, including fever (â 0.65 points in quality, 95% confidence interval [CI] = â 1.24 to â 0.06) and upper respiratory symptoms (â 0.68 points in quality, 95% CI = â 1.30 to â 0.07).ConclusionWe found that quality of ED care delivered to children among a cohort of 12 EDs participating in the PECARN was high and did not differ by patient age, sex, race/ethnicity, and payment source, but did vary by the presenting chief complaint.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142981/1/acem13347_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142981/2/acem13347-sup-0001-DataSupplementS1.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142981/3/acem13347.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142981/4/acem13347-sup-0002-DataSupplementS2.pd

    Provider-level and Hospital-level Factors and Process Measures of Quality Care Delivered in Pediatric Emergency Departments.

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    OBJECTIVE: Differences in the quality of emergency department (ED) care are often attributed to nonclinical factors such as variations in the structure, systems, and processes of care. Few studies have examined these associations among children. We aimed to determine whether process measures of quality of care delivered to patients receiving care in children’s hospital EDs were associated with physician-level or hospital-level factors. METHODS: We included children (<18 years old) who presented to any of the 12 EDs participating in the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) between January 2011 and December 2011. We measured quality of care from medical record reviews using a previously validated implicit review instrument with a summary score ranging from 5 to 35, and examined associations between process measures of quality and physician- and hospital-level factors using a mixed-effects linear regression model adjusted for patient case-mix, with hospital site as a random effect. RESULTS: Among the 620 ED encounters reviewed, we did not find process measures of quality to be associated with any physician-level factors such as physician sex, years since medical school graduation, or physician training. We found, however, that process measures of quality were positively associated with delivery at freestanding children’s hospitals (1.96 points higher in quality compared to nonfreestanding status, 95% confidence interval: 0.49, 3.43) and negatively associated with higher annual ED patient volume (−0.03 points per thousand patients, 95% confidence interval: −0.05, −0.01). CONCLUSION: Process measures of quality of care delivered to children were higher among patients treated at freestanding children’s hospitals but lower among patients treated at higher volume EDs
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