Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To assess variation among hospitals on pediatric readmission and revisit rates and to determine the number of high- and low-performing hospitals. METHODS: In a retrospective analysis using the State Inpatient and Emergency Department Databases from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project with revisit linkages available, we identified pediatric visits with 1 of 7 common inpatient pediatric conditions. For each condition, we calculated rates of all-cause readmissions and rates of revisits within 30 and 60 days of discharge. We used mixed logistic models to estimate hospital-level riskstandardized 30-day revisit rates and to identify hospitals that had performance statistically different from the group mean. RESULTS: Thirty-day readmission rates were low. CONCLUSIONS: We found that when comparing hospitals' performances to the average, few hospitals that care for children are identified as high- or low-performers for revisits, even for common pediatric diagnoses, likely due to low hospital volumes. This limits the usefulness of condition-specific readmission or revisit measures in pediatric quality measurement. Copyright © 2013 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.