Center of Excellence for Pediatric Quality Measurement (CEPQM) | Readmissions

The Pediatric All-Condition Readmission Measure and the Pediatric Lower Respiratory Infection (LRI) Readmission Measure are statistical programs (SAS) that help hospitals organize data and calculate 30-day pediatric readmission rates. Funded through the Pediatric Quality Measures Program (PQMP) by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the Center of Excellence for Pediatric Quality Measurement (CEPQM) developed the Pediatric Readmission Measures as measures that can be used nationally by hospitals, states, and others for performance reporting, quality management, and tracking purposes. The measures were developed and tested using multiple claims datasets. We developed an algorithm to exclude readmissions for procedures that were likely to be planned in advance, as well as a case-mix adjusted model. Both the Pediatric All-Condition and the Pediatric Lower Respiratory Infection Readmission Measures are endorsed by the National Quality Forum (NQF).

Hospital readmission rates are routinely used to measure quality of care in adult populations. Across the United States, approximately 20 percent of Medicare beneficiaries are readmitted within 30 days of discharge. This variation has been interpreted as indicating that a substantial number of readmissions may be avoidable and that tracking unplanned readmissions over time and across hospitals may help target areas for improvement in the quality of care provided during hospitalization and after discharge. While adult readmission has been studied in depth, there are no consistently used measures to assess pediatric readmissions.

For more information about the pediatric readmission measures, their development process, and where to download the SAS programs, please see: Development and Content.

Pediatric Readmission Measures Core Team

• Jay Berry, MD, MPH (Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School)
• Jisun Jang, MA (Boston Children’s Hospital)
• Ashish Jha, MD, MPH (Harvard School of Public Health)
• David Klein, MS (RAND and Boston Children’s Hospital)
• Mari Nakamura, MD, MPH (Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School)
• Carter Petty, MS (Boston Children’s Hospital)
• Mark Schuster, MD, PhD (Kaiser Permanente, Boston Children’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School)
• Sara Toomey, MD, MPhil, MPH, MSc (Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School)
• Alan Zaslavsky, PhD (Harvard Medical School)