A quarter of pediatric deaths at hospitals are preventable, study finds

Investing in pediatric emergency care could save lives more than 2,100 lives each year, new research found.

The study also reported that a quarter of childhood deaths are preventable and investing in the care could save more children.

The price of such an investment would be modest, ranging from no cost to $11.84 per child, according to Oregon Health & Science University physicians.

Implementing new standards of pediatric care across hospital may have prevented an estimated 2,143 of the 7,619 pediatric deaths that occur in emergency departments or following admission from emergency departments each year, the study noted.

Oregon Health & Science Universityled the study that was published Friday in the journal JAMA Network Open. It was funded by the National Institute of Health.

The study’s authors analyzed data on the readiness standards of 4,840 hospital emergency departments around the country.

It also included data on children up to the age of 17 who needed emergency services, hospitalization, a transfer to another hospital or who had died in the emergency department.

Of the emergency departments included, 842 — or around 17 percent — had what was deemed to be high pediatric readiness. They were able to meet childrens’ unique needs, scoring at least 88 out of 100 on the National Pediatric Readiness Project.

Those hospitals scored high on factors such as care coordination, personnel, quality improvement, safety, equipment and policies, and procedures

Based on the cost of emergency department services, the researchers estimated the annual cost for all departments to reach that standard was more than $207 million.

In Oregon specifically, the authors found that an investment of just over $3 per child — a total cost of about $2.7 million annually — could save approximately 30 children’s lives each year when adjusted for population size.

“Few topics are more important than children and their health. We need to do everything we can to keep them alive, and improving pediatric ED readiness is one significant way to move the needle,” lead study author Dr. Craig Newgard said in a statement. “This study builds on a growing body of research demonstrating that every hospital can and must be ready for children’s emergencies.

“For the first time, we have comprehensive national and state-by-state data that emphasizes both the urgency and feasibility of this work.”