Family-Centered Hospital Admissions

In this issue of Pediatrics, McDaniel et al¹  discuss the process of developing and validating a questionnaire asking caregivers about their experience of the pediatric hospital admission process. The survey was created as part of a larger study comparing direct admission (from ambulatory care to hospital) with admission via the emergency department in >70 children’s hospitals and general hospitals across the United States.²  That study, in turn, is part of a comprehensive and thoughtful multiyear body of work by the authors and colleagues, who have examined multiple aspects of pediatric hospital transitions.^3–9 

The authors rightly argue that hospital admission is a complex transition of care with many similarities to hospital discharge and should be measured and assessed as such. In previous publications, they have explored some of the subtle and not-so-subtle conflicting priorities of community doctors, hospitalists, and parents regarding hospital admissions (eg, payment...