Harvard Medical School Reports Findings in Managed Care (Access to Pediatric Bed Capacity According to Social Determinants of Health: All Beds Are Not Created Equal): Managed Care

2025 JAN 07 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- New research on Managed Care is the subject of a report. According to news originating from Boston, Massachusetts, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “To study pediatric inpatient hospital capacity and resources, characterizing differences according to social determinants of health (SDoH) using market share techniques. This cross-sectional study uses non-elective inpatient discharges ( 1 month to 19 years) from Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project and American Hospital Association surveys to derive hospital capacity and resources/capability.”

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Harvard Medical School, “We include US hospitals with 1 pediatric bed and 1 pediatric discharge and calculate per bed capital, expenditure, and staffing, transfer rates, payer-mix, and adjusted central line-associated blood stream infection (CLABSI) rate. We utilize actual discharge data to improve upon traditional geospatial access analyses that assume all patients receive care close to home. SDoH are derived from American Community Survey measures (family income, race and ethnicity, and urban versus rural) and Child Opportunity Index (COI). Using 1,118,502 discharges across 1,404 hospitals, mean pediatric bed capacity was 3.26 beds per 10,000 pediatric-aged residents (95% CI: 3.24-3.29). Capacity was similar across racial and ethnic groups, although socially disadvantaged (low income or COI) areas had higher capacity. Hospitals serving non-Hispanic/Latino Black and Hispanic/Latino children, children from socially disadvantaged communities, and rural areas had lower capital, expenditure, and staff per bed; higher transfer rates; and served more Medicaid enrollees. Hospitals serving very-high COI areas had $284,000 greater expenditure per bed (versus very low) and a 16% lower proportion of Medicaid patients. CLABSI rates did not substantively differ by SDoH. Although pediatric bed capacity was evenly distributed according to SDoH, hospitals serving under-represented, disadvantaged, and rural communities had less capability and resource availability.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Future work is required to guide equity-oriented resource allocation.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Access to Pediatric Bed Capacity According to Social Determinants of Health: All Beds Are Not Created Equal. The Journal of Pediatrics, 2024:114447. The Journal of Pediatrics can be contacted at: Mosby-elsevier, 360 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10010-1710, USA.

The news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained from R. Thomas Day, Dept. of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States. Additional authors for this research include Thomas A. Hegland and Katie M. Moynihan.

The publisher’s contact information for the The Journal of Pediatrics is: Mosby-elsevier, 360 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10010-1710, USA.

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