Hospital Charges Associated With Critical Bronchiolitis From 2009 to 2019*

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the contribution of PICU care to increasing hospital charges for patients with bronchiolitis over a 10-year study period. DESIGN: In this retrospective multicenter study, changes in annual hospital charges (adjusted for inflation) were analyzed using linear regression for subjects admitted to the PICU with invasive mechanical ventilation (PICU + IMV) and without IMV (PICU – IMV), and for children not requiring PICU care. SETTING: Free-standing children’s hospitals contributing to the Pediatric Health Information System (PHIS) database. SUBJECTS: Children less than 2 years with bronchiolitis discharged from a PHIS hospital between July 2009 and June 2019. Subjects were categorized as high risk if they were born prematurely or had a chronic complex condition. INTERVENTIONS: None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: PICU patients were 26.5% of the 283,006 included subjects but accrued 66% of the total $14.83 billion in charges. Annual charges increased from $1.01 billion in 2009–2010 to $2.07 billion in 2018–2019, and PICU patients accounted for 83% of this increase. PICU + IMV patients were 22% of all PICU patients and accrued 64% of all PICU charges, but PICU – IMV patients without a high-risk condition had the highest relative increase in annual charges, increasing from $76.7 million in 2009–2010 to $377.9 million in 2018–2019 (374% increase, ptrend < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: In a multicenter cohort study of children hospitalized with bronchiolitis, PICU patients, especially low-risk children without the need for IMV, were the highest driver of increased hospital charges over a 10-year study period.