Journal of hospital medicine : an official publication of the Society of Hospital Medicine
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Pediatric observation status: are we overlooking a growing population in children's hospitals?
Inpatient administrative datasets often exclude observation stays, as observation is considered to be outpatient care. The extent to which this status is applied to pediatric hospitalizations is not known. ⋯ Children admitted under observation status make up a substantial proportion of acute care hospitalizations. Analyses of inpatient administrative databases that exclude observation stays likely result in an underestimation of hospital resource utilization for children.