Nearly 4 percent of publicly insured American children hospitalized with community-acquired sepsis died within 30 days, and where a child lived was associated with different odds of survival. The finding comes from a national review of Medicaid claims published in Pediatrics and summarized by CIDRAP.
The population studied matters for interpreting the number. These were children covered by Medicaid and CHIP, not all American children. State Medicaid programs insure nearly half of US children, and researchers focused on them because that group carries a higher burden of chronic illness and higher odds of sepsis misdiagnosis in emergency departments.
