title: The Children's Hospitals Neonatal Database: an overview of patient complexity, outcomes and variation in care.
abstract: The Children's Hospitals Neonatal Consortium is a multicenter collaboration of leaders from 27 regional neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) who partnered with the Children's Hospital Association to develop the Children's Hospitals Neonatal Database (CHND), launched in 2010. The purpose of this report is to provide a first summary of the population of infants cared for in these NICUs, including representative diagnoses and short-term outcomes, as well as to characterize the participating NICUs and institutions. During the first 2 1/2 years of data collection, 40910 infants were eligible. Few were born inside these hospitals (2.8%) and the median gestational age at birth was 36 weeks. Surgical intervention (32%) was common; however, mortality (5.6%) was infrequent. Initial queries into diagnosis-specific inter-center variation in care practices and short-term outcomes, including length of stay, showed striking differences. The CHND provides a contemporary, national benchmark of short-term outcomes for infants with uncommon neonatal illnesses. These data will be valuable in counseling families and for conducting observational studies, clinical trials and collaborative quality improvement initiatives.
authors.affiliation: Ann & Robert H Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, Department of Pediatrics, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Murthy
authors.affiliation: Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston and the Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors.forename: F D
authors.initials: FD
authors.lastname: Dykes
authors.affiliation: Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Padula
authors.affiliation: Children's Mercy Hospital and Clinics and the Department of Pediatrics, University of Missouri School of Medicine, Kansas City, MO, USA.
authors.forename: E K
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Pallotto
authors.affiliation: Nationwide Children's Hospital and the Department of Pediatrics, Ohio State University School of Medicine, Columbus, OH, USA.
authors.forename: K M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Reber
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital Oakland & Research Center, Oakland, CA, USA.
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Durand
authors.affiliation: Children's National Medical Center and the Department of Pediatrics, George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington DC, USA.
authors.forename: B L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Short
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital Oakland & Research Center, Oakland, CA, USA.
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Asselin
authors.affiliation: Children's Hospital Association, Overland Park, KS, USA.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Zaniletti
authors.affiliation: Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Evans
mesh_terms: D016208:Databases, Factual; D006776:Hospitals, Pediatric / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007232:Infant, Newborn, Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy; D007363:Intensive Care Units, Neonatal / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States