Pediatric Traumatic Injury Emergency Department Visits and Management in US Children’s Hospitals From 2010 to 2019

To examine trends in trauma-related pediatric emergency department (ED) visits and management in US children’s hospitals over 10 years. This is a retrospective, descriptive study of the Pediatric Health Information Systems database, including encounters from 33 US children’s hospitals. We included patients aged 0 to 19 years with traumatic injuries from 2010 to 2019 identified using International Classification of Diseases-9 and -10 codes. The primary outcome was prevalence of trauma-related ED visits. The secondary outcomes included ED disposition, advanced imaging use, and trauma care costs. We examined trends over time with Poisson regression models, reporting incidence rate ratios (IRRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). We compared demographic groups with rate differences with 95% CIs. Trauma-related visits accounted for 367,072 ED visits (16.3%) in 2010 and 479,458 ED visits (18.1%) in 2019 (IRR 1.022, 95% CI 1.018 to 1.026). From 2010 to 2019, 54.6% of children with traumatic injuries belonged to White race and 23.9% had Hispanic ethnicity. Institutional hospitalization rates (range 3.8% to 14.9%) decreased over time (IRR 0.986, 95% CI 0.977 to 0.994). Hospitalizations from 2010 to 2019 were higher in White children (8.9%) than in children of other races (6.4%) (rate difference 2.56, 95% CI 2.51 to 2.61). Magnetic resonance imaging for brain (IRR 1.05, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.07) and cervical spine (IRR 1.03, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.05) evaluation increased. The total trauma care costs were $6.7 billion, with median costs decreasing over time. During the study period, pediatric ED visits for traumatic injuries increased, whereas hospitalizations decreased. Some advanced imaging use increased; however, median trauma costs decreased over time.