Pediatric high users of Canadian hospitals and emergency departments.

Introduction: Few studies have examined the most frequent pediatric users of hospital services. Our objective was to determine the clinical diagnoses, demographic characteristics, and medical severity of high-use pediatric patients in Canada.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of patients <18 years of age who either were admitted to hospital or visited an emergency department (ED) using the Canadian Institute for Health Information's (CIHI) Dynamic Cohort of Complex, High System Users.