Pediatric Overuse in 2015: Ten Changes in Practice to Benefit Children

Each year U.S. adults receive at least $200 billion of care that can be attributable to “overuse”; this systematic review of studies published in 2015 sought the 10 most important dealing with pediatric overuse.

In the overdiagnosis category:

1. Lowering oxygen-saturation thresholds to 90% for infants with bronchiolitis can safely decrease lengths of stay.

2. Children with isolated linear skull fractures and normal Glasgow coma scale scores do not require hospitalization for observation or re-imaging.

In overtreatment:

1. Using antidepressants in adolescents is likely ineffective and possibly harmful.

2. Most (70% to 80%) hospitalized children with community-acquired pneumonia have a virus or mycoplasma as the pathogen, not bacteria.

3. Oral antibiotics are as e…