Association of hospital characteristics and insurance type with quality outcomes for pediatric craniosynostosis patients.

Objective: Our study aimed to assess the association of insurance status and hospital ownership type with inpatient hospital outcomes among a nationally representative population of pediatric craniosynostosis neurosurgery patients.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study utilized data from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project 2006-2012 Kids Inpatient Database. Primary outcomes including length of stay, and favorable discharge disposition were assessed for all pediatric neurosurgery patients who underwent a neurosurgical procedure for craniosynostosis.

Results: Pediatric neurosurgery patients with private insurance had a reduced length of stay of 0.75 days compared to patients insured by Medicaid. Compared to private, investor-owned hospitals, Government, non-federal, and private, not for profit hospital ownership types were associated with an increased length of stay greater than 1 day.

Conclusions: Our finding of increased LOS for craniosynostosis patients seen in other hospital ownership types compared to those seen in private, investor-owned hospitals is indicative of the possible role that financial incentives may play in influencing quality metrics. Although we observed a shortened LOS for privately-insured patients compared to patients insured by Medicaid, we found no difference in favorable discharge disposition based on insurance status. This suggests that patients with shorter LOS have similar outcomes and are likely not being prematurely discharged.