Abstract
INTRODUCTION: The survival benefits of treatment at high-volume hospitals (HVHs) are well-documented for several critical pediatric conditions. However, their impact on pediatric sepsis, a leading cause of mortality among children, remains understudied. AIM OF THE STUDY: To investigate the association between hospital case volume and mortality rates in pediatric sepsis. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study using data from the Diagnosis Procedure Combination database. The study included patients who met the following criteria: 1) aged 28 days to 17 years; 2) discharged from the hospital between April 2014 and March 2018; 3) had a sepsis diagnosis coded under the International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision; 4) underwent blood cultures on hospital admission day (day 0) or day 1; 5) received antimicrobial agents on day 0 or 1; and 6) required at least one organ support measure (e.g., mechanical ventilation or vasopressors) on day 0 or 1. Hospitals were categorized by case volume during the study period, with HVHs defined as those in the highest quartile and low-volume hospitals (LVHs) as those in the remaining quartiles. In-hospital mortality rates between HVH and LVH groups were compared using mixed-effects logistic regression analysis with propensity score (PS) matching. RESULTS: A total of 934 pediatric patients were included in the study, with an overall in-hospital mortality rate of 16.1%. Of them, 234 were treated at 5 HVHs (≥26 patients in 4 years), and 700 at 234 LVHs (<26 patients in 4 years). Upon PS matching, patients treated at HVHs demonstrated significantly lower odds of in-hospital mortality compared with those treated at LVHs (odds ratio, 0.42; 95% confidence interval, 0.22-0.80; P = 0.008). CONCLUSIONS: In pediatric patients with sepsis, treatment at HVHs was associated with lower odds of in-hospital mortality.