Secondary Analysis of Merged American Hospital Association Data and U.S. Census Data: Beginning to Understand the Supply–Demand Chain in Pediatric Inpatient Care

Lacey, Susan R.; Kilgore, Meredith; Yun, Huifeng; Hughes, Ronda; Allison, Jeroan; Cox, Karen S.

doi:10.1016/j.pedn.2007.08.019

« Previous Next »Journal of Pediatric Nursing
Volume 23, Issue 3 , Pages 161-168, June 2008

Secondary Analysis of Merged American Hospital Association Data and U.S. Census Data: Beginning to Understand the Supply–Demand Chain in Pediatric Inpatient Care

Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics, Kansas, MO

University of Alabama School of Public Health, Birmingham, AL

Center for Primary Care, Prevention, and Clinical Partnerships, Agency for Health Research and Quality, Rockville, MD

University of Alabama School of Medicine, Birmingham, AL and Center for Outcomes and Effectiveness Research and Education, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics, Kansas City, MO

Much attention has been focused on how the nursing shortage will impact the growing number of aging Americans. This study was conducted as a first step in understanding nursing supply relative to potential pediatric demand using merged data from the American Hospital Association's annual survey and Census data by state from the year 2000. Findings indicate that there is tremendous variability among reporting states related to estimated pediatric nurses (registered nurse full-time equivalents), potential pediatric demand (persons from birth to 18 years), and allocated pediatric beds. Future research will examine how this supply–demand chain impacts clinical and cost outcomes for pediatric patients.

Key words: Workforce, Pediatrics, Supply-demand