Impact of a short stay unit on asthma patients admitted to a tertiary pediatric hospital.

A short stay unit (SSU) was opened at the Children's Hospital, Boston, with the aim of better fulfilling the needs of pediatric patients with straightforward diagnoses. Using historical and simultaneous comparison groups and controlling for disease severity, the opening of the SSU led to a decrease of between 16.5 and 28.4 percent in the mean length of stay for asthma patients without any increase in the rate of hospital readmission.