Characteristics and Clinical Outcomes of Children and Adolescents Aged <18 Years Hospitalized with COVID-19 - Six Hospitals, United States, July-August 2021.

During June 2021, the highly transmissible† B.1.617.2 (Delta) variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, became the predominant circulating strain in the United States. U.S. pediatric COVID-19-related hospitalizations increased during July-August 2021 following emergence of the Delta variant and peaked in September 2021.§ As of May 12, 2021, CDC recommended COVID-19 vaccinations for persons aged ≥12 years,¶ and on November 2, 2021, COVID-19 vaccinations were recommended for persons aged 5-11 years.** To date, clinical signs and symptoms, illness course, and factors contributing to hospitalizations during the period of Delta predominance have not been well described in pediatric patients. CDC partnered with six children's hospitals to review medical record data for patients aged <18 years with COVID-19-related hospitalizations during July-August 2021.†† Among 915 patients identified, 713 (77.9%) were hospitalized for COVID-19 (acute COVID-19 as the primary or contributing reason for hospitalization), 177 (19.3%) had incidental positive SARS-CoV-2 test results (asymptomatic or mild infection unrelated to the reason for hospitalization), and 25 (2.7%) had multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), a rare but serious inflammatory condition associated with COVID-19.§§ Among the 713 patients hospitalized for COVID-19, 24.7% were aged <1 year, 17.1% were aged 1-4 years, 20.1% were aged 5-11 years, and 38.1% were aged 12-17 years. Approximately two thirds of patients (67.5%) had one or more underlying medical conditions, with obesity being the most common (32.4%); among patients aged 12-17 years, 61.4% had obesity. Among patients hospitalized for COVID-19, 15.8% had a viral coinfection¶¶ (66.4% of whom had respiratory syncytial virus [RSV] infection). Approximately one third (33.9%) of patients aged <5 years hospitalized for COVID-19 had a viral coinfection. Among 272 vaccine-eligible (aged 12-17 years) patients hospitalized for COVID-19, one (0.4%) was fully vaccinated.*** Approximately one half (54.0%) of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 received oxygen support, 29.5% were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU), and 1.5% died; of those requiring respiratory support, 14.5% required invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV). Among pediatric patients with COVID-19-related hospitalizations, many had severe illness and viral coinfections, and few vaccine-eligible patients hospitalized for COVID-19 were vaccinated, highlighting the importance of vaccination for those aged ≥5 years and other prevention strategies to protect children and adolescents from COVID-19, particularly those with underlying medical conditions.

Factors Associated With Severe Illness in Patients Aged <21 Years Hospitalized for COVID-19.

OBJECTIVES: To describe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-related pediatric hospitalizations during a period of B.1.617.2 (Δ) variant predominance and to determine age-specific factors associated with severe illness. METHODS: We abstracted data from medical charts to conduct a cross-sectional study of patients aged <21 years hospitalized at 6 United States children's hospitals from July to August 2021 for COVID-19 or with an incidental positive severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 test. Among patients with COVID-19, we assessed factors associated with severe illness by calculating age-stratified prevalence ratios (PR). We defined severe illness as receiving high-flow nasal cannula, positive airway pressure, or invasive mechanical ventilation. RESULTS: Of 947 hospitalized patients, 759 (80.1%) had COVID-19, of whom 287 (37.8%) had severe illness. Factors associated with severe illness included coinfection with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) (PR 3.64) and bacteria (PR 1.88) in infants; RSV coinfection in patients aged 1 to 4 years (PR 1.96); and obesity in patients aged 5 to 11 (PR 2.20) and 12 to 17 years (PR 2.48). Having ≥2 underlying medical conditions was associated with severe illness in patients aged <1 (PR 1.82), 5 to 11 (PR 3.72), and 12 to 17 years (PR 3.19). CONCLUSIONS: Among patients hospitalized for COVID-19, factors associated with severe illness included RSV coinfection in those aged <5 years, obesity in those aged 5 to 17 years, and other underlying conditions for all age groups <18 years. These findings can inform pediatric practice, risk communication, and prevention strategies, including vaccination against COVID-19.

Variation in Generational Perceptions of Child Health and Well-being.

OBJECTIVE: To assess adults' perceptions regarding the health and well-being of children today relative to their own health and well-being as youth and the potential for intergenerational differences in those perceptions. METHODS: A cross-sectional, Internet-based survey of a nationally representative household sample was conducted using GfK Custom Research's Web-enabled KnowledgePanel, a probability-based panel representative of the US population. We assessed perceptions of children's health and well-being today compared to when respondents were growing up, including physical and mental health; and children's education, exercise, diet, health care, safety of communities, and emotional support from families, groups, and organizations. RESULTS: Overall, 1330 (65%) of 2047 adult respondents completed the survey. Only 26% of respondents believed that the current physical health of children, and 14% that the current mental health of children, is better today than when they were growing up. There was a significant trend among generations, with a greater proportion of older generations perceiving the physical health of children to be better today. Only 15% of respondents reported the chances for a child to grow up with good mental health in the future are "better" now than when they were growing up. CONCLUSIONS: Adults across all generations in the United States today view children's health as unlikely to meet the goals of the American Dream of continuous improvement. Although demographic changes require continued focus on our aging population, we must equally recognize the importance of advancing a healthy future for our nation's children, who will assume the mantle of our future.

Success factors in merging teaching hospitals.

Merger has served as a major strategy for the leaders of academic medical centers (i.e., teaching hospitals) who are pursuing health system development for their institutions. Applying hindsight to their personal experience, the authors explore common themes in several mergers that have survived the test of time. Although many elements influence merger outcomes, experience suggests several of unique importance. These include effective leadership in the areas of creating trust, managing uncertainty, ensuring medical staff stability, and bridging cultural divides across the organizations. While a quantitative business case should support any merger, the authors' experiences underscore the importance of successfully assessing and managing organizational and individual dynamics when bringing together major teaching hospitals.

Value management: optimizing quality, service, and cost.

Hospitals have wrestled with balancing quality, service, and cost for years--and the visibility and urgency around measuring and communicating real metrics has grown exponentially in the last decade. However, even today, most hospital leaders cannot articulate or demonstrate the "value" they provide to patients and payers. Instead of developing a strategic direction that is based around a core value proposition, they focus their strategic efforts on tactical decisions like physician recruitment, facility expansion, and physician alignment. In the healthcare paradigm of the next decade, alignment of various tactical initiatives will require a more coherent understanding of the hospital's core value positioning. The authors draw on their experience in a variety of healthcare settings to suggest that for most hospitals, quality (i.e., clinical outcomes and patient safety) will become the most visible indicator of value, and introduce a framework to help healthcare providers influence their value positioning based on this variable.

Governance of the academic health center: striking the balance between service and scholarship.

Academic health centers (AHCs) rank among the most complex organizations. Spanning the domains of university, clinical practice, hospital, and research, AHCs encompass a range of strikingly different business models, each with its own economic potential. The ability to bring these diverse enterprises actively working together has been the unique strength of the AHC as a vehicle of patient care, education, and discovery. Unfortunately, the AHC has also proved at times to be a frustrating organizational matrix of indecision wrought by different aims and distributed influence, presenting substantial challenges to the success of these institutions. The question of how best to organize the fiduciary and executive management structures of the AHC continues to be the subject of much interest to those trustees responsible for these complex institutions. Although the question of what is the best governance model for an AHC is sometimes approached in simple terms of "one leader, or multiple," success is more likely defined by how well other critical factors are organized and managed. These include considerations of governance, including selection and education of key trustees, their ability to access key data for their specific institution and the AHC as a whole, performance evaluation of the operating executives with respect to both specific institutional criteria and those for the AHC as a whole, and management oversight by boards across the AHC. When more than one governing body is involved, joint participation of boards and key executives is recommended for selected aspects of these processes.