Neighborhood Opportunity, Hospital Volume, and Pediatric Postoperative Mortality

Are neighborhood opportunity and hospital volume associated with risk of postoperative mortality among pediatric patients?In this cohort study of more than 996 000 pediatric surgical encounters, children from lower-opportunity neighborhoods faced a greater risk of postoperative mortality than those from higher-opportunity areas. Although children from higher-opportunity neighborhoods treated at high-volume hospitals had the lowest mortality risk, this volume-outcome association was not observed among children from lower-opportunity neighborhoods.This study suggests that children from disadvantaged neighborhoods had a greater risk of postoperative mortality; treatment at high-volume hospitals was not associated with lower risk for these children.

Corresponding Author: Sandra Tay, PhD, Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, 700 Children’s Dr, Columbus, OH 43205 (sandra.tay@nationwidechildrens.org).

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