Variability in imaging utilization in U.S. pediatric hospitals

Abstract

Diagnostic imaging utilization and costs vary widely in pediatric hospitals.

Pediatric Abdominal Pain: Use of Imaging in the Emergency Department in the United States from 1999 to 2007

“…Prior studies evaluating the effect of insurance status on the incidence of perforated appendicitis in both children and adults have shown that the risk for perforated appendicitis is higher among patients who lack private insurance (40-42). Given that CT serves an important role in the imaging of complicated appendicitis and the evaluation of abscess formation, it patients (32,33). This research adds to emerging literature surrounding CT use in the ED, building on the earlier study by Larson et al and on the work of other authors who have documented an increase in CT use within the ED (24)(25)(26)34,35).…”

Use of Imaging in the Emergency Department: Physicians Have Limited Effect on Variation

“…We linked patient records from ED information system and N early half (44.4%) of all emergency department (ED) visits in the United States in 2007 involved performance of an imaging test (1), and more recent data (47.2% in 2010) show no signs of abatement (2). Several studies highlighted substantial variation that exists in imaging rates across (3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9) and within (10)(11)(12) EDs. The presence of this variation suggests that at least some of the increase in the use of ED imaging may be unwarranted.…”

Frequency of paediatric medical imaging examinations performed at a European teaching hospital over a 7-year period

“…However, MI use within the paediatric population remains unclear, and the few published studies found mainly provide data detailing the use of MI on paediatric populations outside of Europe before the year 2010 [22,24,40] or else solely focus on the use of a single modality such as CT [23,25,38,[41][42][43][44][45]. It is in this context that we believe that our study findings provide a valid insight into recent trends occurring at a general hospital in Fig.…”