Declines in the Number of Lumbar Punctures Performed at United States Children's Hospitals, 2009-2019.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate trends in lumbar puncture (LP) performance among US children's hospitals to assess how these trends may impact pediatric resident trainee exposure to LP. STUDY DESIGN: We quantified LPs for emergency department (ED) and inpatient encounters at 29 US children's hospitals from 2009 to 2019. LP was defined by either a LP procedure code or cerebrospinal fluid culture billing code. Temporal trends and hospital variation in LP were assessed using logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: A total of 215 030 LPs were performed during the study period (0.8% of all encounters). Twenty six thousand and five hundred twenty three and 16 696 LPs were performed in the 2009 and 2018 academic years, respectively (overall 37.1% reduction, per-year OR, 0.935; 95% CI, 0.922-0.948; P < .001), and the rate of LP decreased from 10.9 per 1000 hospital encounters to 6.0 per 1000 hospital encounters over the same period. CONCLUSIONS: LP rates have declined across US children's hospitals over the past decade, potentially resulting in reduced clinical exposure for pediatric resident trainees. Improved procedural simulation during residency may augment the clinical experience.

Rehospitalization for childhood asthma: timing, variation, and opportunities for intervention.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the timing of pediatric asthma rehospitalization, variation in rate of rehospitalization across hospitals, and factors associated with rehospitalization at different intervals. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective cohort analysis of 44,204 hospitalizations for children with asthma within 42 children's hospitals between July 2008 and June 2011. The main outcome measures were rehospitalization for asthma within 7, 15, 30, 60, 180, and 365 days of an index asthma admission. RESULTS: The rate of asthma rehospitalization ranged from 0.5% (n = 208) at 7 days to 17.2% (n = 7603) at 365 days. Black patients and patients with public insurance had higher odds of rehospitalization at 60 days and beyond (P ≤ .01 for both). Adolescents (12- to 18-year-old), patients with a diagnosis of a complex chronic condition, and patients with a prior year asthma admission had higher odds of rehospitalization at every time interval (P ≤ .001 for all). Significant hospital variation in case-mix adjusted rates of rehospitalization existed at each time interval (P ≤ .01 for all). Rates at 365 days were ≤ 10.9% for the top 10% of hospitals; if all hospitals achieved this rate, 36.6% of rehospitalizations might have been avoided. CONCLUSIONS: Significant variation in asthma rehospitalization rates exists across children's hospitals from 7 to 365 days after an index admission. Racial/ethnic and economic disparities emerge at 60 days. By 1 year, rehospitalizations account for 1 in 6 hospitalizations. Assessing asthma rehospitalizations at longer intervals may augment our current understanding of and approach to post-hospitalization care improvement.