WHAT'S KNOWN ON THIS SUBJECT: Iatrogenic medical errors are an important medical care issue in the United States. Errors may be particularly important in children with chronic health conditions, especially as the prevalence of chronic conditions is increasing in children.
WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS:In a nationally representative sample, we found that pediatric inpatients with chronic conditions were at a significantly higher risk for medical errors than inpatient children without chronic conditions, controlling for severity of illness, length of stay, and other potential confounders. abstract OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between chronic conditions and iatrogenic medical errors in US pediatric inpatients.
METHODS:The 2006 Kids' Inpatient Database (KID) was analyzed. Medical errors were defined by using International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) codes. Medical error rates per 100 hospital discharges and per 1000 inpatient days were calculated. Logistic regression models were fitted to study the association between number of chronic conditions and medical errors, controlling for patient characteristics, hospital characteristics, disease severity, and length of stay.
RESULTS:In the 2006 KID, 22.3% of pediatric inpatients had 1 chronic condition, 9.8% had 2 chronic conditions, and 12.0% had $3 chronic conditions. The overall medical error rate per 100 discharges was 3.0 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.8-3.3); it was 5.3 (95% CI: 4.9-5.7) in children with chronic conditions and 1.3 (95% CI: 1.2-1.3) in children without chronic conditions. The medical error rate per 1000 inpatient days was also higher in children with chronic conditions. The association between chronic conditions and medical errors remained statistically significant in logistic regression models adjusting for patient characteristics, hospital characteristics, disease severity, and length of stay. In the adjusted model, the odds ratio of medical errors for children with 1 chronic condition was 1.40 (95% CI: 1.32-1.48); for children with 2 conditions, the OR was 1.55 (95% CI: 1.45-1.66); and for children with 3 conditions, the OR was 1.66 (95% CI: 1.53-1.81).
CONCLUSIONS:The number of chronic conditions was significantly associated with iatrogenic medical errors in pediatric inpatients. Pediatrics 2012;130:e786-e793 AUTHORS: