The number of hospitalists—physicians practicing exclusively in acute care settings—continues to grow. However, whether patient outcomes differ between hospitalists and general physicians remains unclear. This study examined medical record data from a single urban academic children's hospital to compare patient outcomes between general pediatricians and hospitalists. After adjustment for patient characteristics (e.g., age and number of chronic conditions) and for physician characteristics (e.g., number of years in practice), the investigators did not find differences in readmission rates, total costs, or lengths of stay. The hospitalists' patients had a greater risk for device-related adverse events, which was explained by differences in physician experience. The authors conclude that the safety of care delivered by general versus hospitalist pediatricians is similar. A related editorial predicts that the hospitalist model of pediatric acute care will continue to grow.

Look-alike, sound-alike drug names pose serious threats for potential medication errors. In this study, 38 pediatricians participated in a modified Delphi process to classify the clinical importance of more than 600 look-alike, sound-alike medication pairs that present risks to children.

Children are particularly vulnerable to medication errors in the outpatient setting. This study found that prescribing errors were common in opioid pain medications dispensed to children, especially infants. These results suggest that opioid prescriptions for pediatric patients often contain potential overdose quantities and better safeguards are needed to prevent such incidents.

… provider order entry  (CPOE). Dedicated children's hospitals and teaching institutions were more likely to use …