1 Children's Hospital National Medical Center, and George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, DC
2 Diagnostic Systems Branch, National Institutes of Dental Research, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD
To the Editor.
Dr Bushore's perceptive and progressive commentary on the need to reduce health care expenditures while assuring appropriate care for appropriate patients should be applauded.1 Too little emphasis on this important, national issue has been given in the pediatric literature. Dr Bushore's commentary referred to only one paper, our recent analysis of inappropriate intensive care unit (ICU) admissions2 and emphasized the importance of an objective method for evaluations of potential resource reduction. The use of objective methods for these evaluations should be expanded upon.