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Teaching hospitals conduct pediatric adenotonsillectomy most frequently
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Patterns of hospital use and regionalization of pediatric adenotonsillectomy indicated that the procedure is performed most commonly at teaching and academic hospitals, according to recent research.
“We sought to delineate recent temporal trends in the distribution of inpatient pediatric tonsillectomies among teaching and nonteaching institutions, as well as insurance aspects that may affect the reimbursement for and access to this care,” Sophie Shay, MD, of the department of head and neck surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, and colleagues wrote. “Inpatient pediatric adenotonsillectomies are increasingly being regionalized to academic/teaching hospitals.”
The researchers analyzed data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample for all inpatient tonsillectomy admissions among children aged younger than 18 years admitted during 2000, 2005 and 2010. Demographic data such as age, sex, ICD-9 codes, hospital type and insurance provider also were extracted for each study patient.
Data showed that the trend between 2000 and 2010 indicated an increase in adenotonsillectomies performed at teaching hospitals; with teaching hospitals making up 60.1% of tonsillectomy surgeries in 2000, 69.8% in 2005 and 78.6% in 2010 (P = .045).
The researchers noted that the proportion of patients paying with Medicaid insurance also increased during the study period. Medicaid billings increased from 38.4% in 2000 to 50.5% in 2010, while private insurance claims declined from 57.7% in 2000 to 43.9% in 2010 (P = .02).
“Long-term assessment of the regionalization of pediatric otolaryngology toward academic hospitals, particularly in light of an increasing Medicaid population, needs to be performed before overall societal impact can be further demonstrated.” – by David Costill
Disclosure: Shay reports no relevant financial disclosures. See the full study for a list of all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.
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