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. 2021 Dec 1;37(12):e850-e854.
doi: 10.1097/PEC.0000000000001811.

Increased Testing and Health Care Costs for Pediatric Cannabis Exposures

Ferras Bashqoy  1 , Justin W Heizer  2 , Pamela D Reiter, George S Wang, Laura M Borgelt  3
Affiliations

Increased Testing and Health Care Costs for Pediatric Cannabis Exposures

Ferras Bashqoy et al. Pediatr Emerg Care. .

Abstract

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the process of identifying marijuana exposure in a children's hospital emergency department and compare the cost of diagnostic testing and procedures.

Methods: A retrospective chart review was performed on patients 31 days to 20 years old with a positive marijuana toxicology screen result between November 2009 and December 2014. Primary outcomes included time to provider recognition of marijuana exposure, number of diagnostic tests and procedures performed, and length of hospital stay. Patients were analyzed based on time of exposure recognition (forthcoming compared with not forthcoming of marijuana exposure) and age (children <12 years compared with adolescents >12 years).

Results: There were 37 children and 38 adolescents included. Mean time to exposure recognition was 2.3 ± 4.3 hours in children compared with 0.4 ± 0.9 hours in adolescents (P = 0.02). Patients who were not forthcoming of marijuana exposure experienced more than twice as many diagnostic tests or procedures compared with children who were forthcoming of marijuana exposure (mean, 8.91 vs 4 tests, P < 0.0001) and more than a 4-fold higher cost of potentially avoidable diagnostic tests/procedures. Length of hospital stay was significantly longer in children (18.34 ± 2.39 hours) compared with adolescents (4.22 ± 0.52 hours; P ≤ 0.0001). Few parents or guardians were able to disclose characteristics of the marijuana product.

Conclusion: Delay in recognition of marijuana exposure is associated with high resource utilization, unnecessary medical costs, and prolonged length of stay.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure: F.B., J.H., and P.R. have no conflicts of interest. G.W. receives royalties from UpToDate for authorship contributions on related topics. L.B. and G.W. have a medical marijuana grant evaluating CBD pharmacokinetics in pediatric epilepsy from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. This project received no funding. Preliminary results of this study were presented at the Pediatric Pharmacy Advocacy Group Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, MN (April 2015).

References

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