What is it about?
Most studies following children and adolescents after psychiatric hospitalization have focused on rehospitalization, despite a significant uptick in pediatric psychiatric ED admissions and the resultant cost and burden. This study finds that exposure to a greater variety of trauma types, generalized anxiety disorder, and longer hospital length of stay are associated with increased risk of ED utilization for a mental health evaluation after discharge to the community from psychiatric hospitalization. To reduce the cost and healthcare burden of this negative outcome, future research should seek to confirm these findings in larger multisite studies, and more directly control for underlying factors contributing to LOS, determination of discharge services and the child’s ecological context.