Pediatric Vital Signs: Measuring and Improving the Health of a Population

Graph representation of the eight Pediatric Vital Signs metrics
In the same way that traditional vital signs such as temperature and blood pressure give an indication of an individual child’s health, Pediatric Vital Signs is an effort to meaningfully measure the wellbeing of all children in Franklin County, Ohio across eight metrics that span childhood.

Despite the best efforts of primary care providers and children’s hospitals, some children do not receive the care they need. Patients can only spend a limited amount of time in a medical office, and some who would benefit the most may not come in at all.

A child’s wellbeing is also inextricably tied to educational opportunities, neighborhood safety, housing quality and a number of other “social determinants of health” that medical care does not address.

So Nationwide Children’s Hospital and a number of community partners have launched the first effort of its kind in the United States to measure and improve the health of every child: Pediatric Vital Signs.

Traditional vital signs such as temperature and blood pressure assess an individual child’s health; Pediatric Vital Signs uses eight metrics to measure the wellbeing of all children in Franklin County, Ohio – then leverages that information to improve overall outcomes, regardless of where or how children receive health care.

What Are The Eight Metrics?

Those eight metrics are:

  1. Infant mortality
  2. Kindergarten readiness
  3. High school graduation
  4. Obesity
  5. Teenage pregnancy
  6. Suicide
  7. All-cause child mortality
  8. A hybrid measure called preventive services delivery
Read More at Pediatrics Nationwide
Read more about Pediatric Vital Signs and how the entire project is being implemented