Inter-Hospital Variation of Inpatient Versus Outpatient Pediatric Burn Treatment After Emergency Department Evaluation

Abstract Background Approaches to burn care in the pediatric population are highly variable and can be targeted as a potential measure in cost-reduction. We hypothesized that institutions vary significantly in treatment allocation of non-severe burns to either inpatient or outpatient care. Methods We queried the PHIS database for fiscal year 2017 to quantify small pediatric burn admissions and Emergency Department visits(ED). The ICD-10 code T31.0 was used to identify burns involving Results Inpatient versus outpatient management distribution was significantly different across the included pediatric children’s hospitals (n = 34, p  Conclusions Variability of inpatient versus outpatient pediatric burn management in small burns was significant. Compared to outpatient burn care, inpatient care is significantly more costly. Implementing protocols and personnel to provide adequate attention to small burns in the ED could be an important cost-saving measure. Type of Study Retrospective Analysis Level of Evidence Level III