Reasons for Being Admitted to the Hospital Through the Emergency Department for Children and Adolescents, 2004. Statistical Brief No. 33

摘要

In 2004, over 1 million children and adolescents entered the hospital through the emergency department (ED), accounting for roughly half of all pediatric hospital stays (excluding births and adolescent pregnancy cases). Understanding the reasons why children and adolescents are admitted to the hospital from the ED can help identify conditions for which emergency utilization potentially could be avoided if adequate primary care were available. Examining admissions through the ED is critical to addressing problems of potential overcrowding in the ED, increased costs associated with emergency care, and problems in quality of and access to primary care. This Statistical Brief presents data from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) on the most common reasons for hospitalizations that began in the ED for patients under 18 years of age and compares these pediatric stays with similar stays for adults. All differences between estimates noted in the text are statistically significant at the 0.05 level or better. This brief is the second report of a two-part series on pediatric stays that began in the ED. General information on utilization and cost characteristics of pediatric hospital admissions that began in ED is presented in Statistical Brief No. 32.