Pediatric acute care in the United States is highly regionalized, and access to it is inadequate for many children. Researchers, health care analysts, and others use resources, such as the Dartmouth Atlas Project, that provide data and analysis about healthcare regions and utilization and acute care patterns throughout the United States. However, these resources are based on data for adults and are not a fit for pediatrics. Recognizing the need for a resource specific to how and where children receive acute care, a team that included researchers from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago developed a national atlas detailing pediatric acute care regions. They published their results in JAMA Pediatrics.   

The cross-sectional study of Medicaid data from January 2021 to December 2022, with analysis from April 2024 to June 2025, of acute care hospitals in the United States included emergency and inpatient encounters among youth younger than 16 years enrolled in Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program.   

The new map of pediatric acute care will guide research, policy, and regional quality efforts. For example, researchers can compare regional performance data to learn in which regions hospitals are doing an exceptional job, or evaluate costs and insurance networks between regions, explained Kenneth Michelson, MD, MPH, Attending Physician in the Division of Emergency Medicine at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and Associate Professor of Pediatrics (Emergency Medicine) at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. He adds that the next step is to use the new map to evaluate how well different regions in the United States are performing so that hospitals can replicate what the top performers are doing.   

Dr. Michelson is the lead author of the study. Other Lurie Children’s collaborators are Andrew Skol, PhD, Bioinformatics Scientist II; Patrick McMullen, PhD, Director of Bioinformatics; Naveen Singamsetty, MS, Data Architect II; and Danielle Cory, MENG, Clinical Research Coordinator Lead.   

Pediatric research at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago is conducted through Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute.