All Entries Tagged With: "pediatrics"

Most pediatric hospitalist programs subsidized by hospitals

The majority of pediatric hospitalist programs in the United States are subsidized by hospitals, according to a recent study, “Assessing the value of pediatric hospitalist programs: The perspective of hospital leaders,” published in the May issue of Academic Pediatrics.

Out of the 77 hospital executive respondents, 78% of those hospitals subsidized their pediatric programs. The hospitals paid for nearly half (49%) of the total pediatric program costs. Although most hospitals do not anticipate that they can financially cover those costs, they do not plan on cutting off support to the pediatric hospitalist programs. Why? Most respondents noted that it was not about money, but rather other patient benefits and satisfaction from referring physicians.

You can read more about the growth of this specialty, featured in the upcoming July issue of Hospitalist Leadership Advisor, supplement to the Medical Staff Briefing newsletter.

Pediatric hospitalist care cuts costs and LOS, study says

A staff-only general pediatric hospitalist service can decrease costs and reduce length of stay when compared to a traditional faculty and house staff subspecialty service, according to a new study. The study, “Staff-only pediatric hospitalist care of patients with medically complex subspecialty conditions in a major teaching hospital,” published in the October issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, evaluated 925 pediatric patients with medically complex subspecialty diseases (gastroenterology and hematology/oncology) in 2005 and 2006.

When the faculty and house staff reached their maximum patient census, they turned over the remaining patients to the hospitalist team. The study found that patient length of stay in the hospitalist service totaled an average of 7.2 days, compared to 9.8 days during the non-hospitalist service. Patient costs on the hospitalist service averaged $11,000 versus the higher costs of $16,500 on the non-hospitalist service.

Researchers concluded, “In this era of resident duty-hour restrictions and medical complexity of conditions in inpatients, staff-only hospitalist programs may have a vital role in pediatric teaching hospitals.”

The strive for inpatient pediatric consistency

Although studies show that pediatric hospitalist care is efficient, there haven’t been as many studies about the quality of care or about variations in these types of programs.  A recent study by the Pediatric Research in Inpatient Settings, an organization that touts quality of care for hospitalized children, found that inpatient pediatric systems demonstrated substantial variation managing therapies for common patient conditions.  The study concluded that there is a need for a strong evidence base for pediatric hospitalist programs to reduce undesirable variations in care.