Quantitative quality assurance in a community hospital pediatric intensive care unit

Unbiased, objective evaluations of quality of care are preferred over subjective evaluations. We observed 681 admissions to a pediatric intensive care unit of a community hospital from 1989 through 1990 for outcomes and physiologic profiles of the patients on the admission day using the Pediatric Risk of Mortality score to assess severity of illness. Mortality adjusted for severity of illness was compared with that predicted from a pediatric intensive care unit of a tertiary medical center: 32.6 deaths were predicted based on the physiologic profiles, and 23 occurred. The number of outcomes and their distribution according to mortality risk indicated close agreement between observed and predicted results. Thus, a quality-assurance technique developed in tertiary care centers can be used to indicate a comparable level of care in a community hospital.