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Medical injuries among hospitalized children

J R Meurer1, H Yang, C E Guse

  • 1Department of Pediatrics and Children's Research Institute, Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, WI 53233, USA. jmeurer@mcw.edu

Quality & Safety in Health Care
|June 6, 2006
PubMed

Insights

Medical injuries in hospitalized children are common, leading to longer stays and higher costs. Focusing on medications, procedures, and devices can improve care and reduce pediatric medical injury rates.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric healthcare quality and safety
  • Medical error and patient harm
  • Public health surveillance

Background:

  • Pediatric medical injuries contribute to prolonged hospitalizations and increased healthcare expenses.
  • Existing research often overlooks injuries occurring outside inpatient settings that lead to admission.
  • The Wisconsin Medical Injury Prevention Program (WMIPP) offers novel screening criteria.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To determine the incidence and outcomes of medical injuries in hospitalized children in Wisconsin.
  • To apply the WMIPP screening criteria to a large dataset of pediatric discharges.
  • To identify specific types of medical injuries associated with adverse outcomes.

Main Methods:

  • Cross-sectional analysis of 318,785 pediatric discharge records from Wisconsin hospitals (2000-2002).
  • Utilized WMIPP screening criteria to identify medical injuries.
  • Statistical analysis adjusted for disease category, illness severity, mortality risk, and hospital clustering.

Main Results:

  • WMIPP criteria identified medical injuries in 3.4% of pediatric discharges.
  • Medications (1.5%), procedures (1.3%), and devices (0.9%) were primary injury sources.
  • Medical injuries were associated with a 0.5-day longer length of stay (12% increase) and $1614 higher charges (26% increase).
  • Genitourinary devices, vascular devices, and post-procedure infections/inflammation led to the greatest excess length of stay and charges.

Conclusions:

  • Study findings align with national data up to 2000, extending insights to 2002 in Wisconsin.
  • Hospitals and pediatricians should prioritize clinical improvements targeting medications, procedures, and devices linked to frequent medical injuries.
  • Implementing medical injury surveillance is crucial for monitoring and reducing pediatric medical injury rates.
Abstract

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