Inside the New Model for Pediatric Performance Improvement

Key Takeaways

• Adult benchmarks don’t fit pediatric realities. Children’s hospitals need metrics that reflect their unique patient populations and care models.
• By combining pediatric-specific data from Premier’s PIVOT platform with technology and on-the-ground advisory expertise, Premier helps children’s hospitals translate insights into measurable improvements in access, efficiency and sustainability.
• Enterprise alignment drives results. When physician enterprise, operations and supply chain teams work from the same data, children’s hospitals can reduce wait times, reinvest savings and strengthen both mission and margin.

Children’s hospitals nationwide are facing a growing set of challenges. With rising patient demand, ongoing staffing difficulties, increased administrative tasks, and complex payer issues—especially due to high Medicaid populations—budgets are under significant pressure[1]. Despite taking on more responsibilities, these hospitals have seen their financial performance decline: operating margins per provider have dropped by 21 percent since 2022, and patient access times have risen by nearly 20 percent during the same period, according to Premier’s data[2].

These pressures expose a deeper challenge: traditional performance frameworks were never designed for pediatrics. Many children’s hospitals are finding that the benchmarks used to guide operational improvement simply don’t reflect the realities of family-centered care, behavioral health coordination or the broader social services that children’s hospitals provide.

A Data Disconnect in Pediatric Care

Across the pediatric healthcare landscape, leaders describe a widening gap between what they can measure and what they actually value. Metrics like work relative value units (wRVUs) or patient throughput may capture activity, but they rarely account for the multidisciplinary, long-term nature of caring for children and their families.

For example, according to Premier data from 2022 to 2025[2], pediatric volumes rose 14 percent, yet the share of new patients declined by 5 percent. Despite providers working harder, access for families continues to narrow.

This disconnect makes it difficult to pinpoint where inefficiencies exist or how to address them without compromising mission. As pediatric hospital executives seek ways to balance financial sustainability with access and equity, many are turning to advisory and analytics tools that are purpose-built for pediatric environments.

Where Data, Technology and Advisory Intersect

Premier’s extensive work with children’s hospitals through its Performance Insights Value Optimization Tool (PIVOT) highlights how pediatric-specific data can reshape decision-making. PIVOT aggregates peer benchmarks across areas like new-patient lead time, provider panel size and investment per provider, which are areas where children’s hospitals often diverge from adult healthcare systems.

Premier’s advisory teams then help translate those PIVOT insights into operational strategies, using interactive dashboards that allow hospital leaders to model potential changes in real time. For example, children’s hospitals could use these insights to identify patterns such as subspecialties with the longest wait times that also carry the highest cost per encounter. With that data, leaders could adjust scheduling and rebalance workloads to potentially improve access without increasing expenses.

A Systemwide View of Performance

Pediatric hospital performance is not confined to the physician enterprise. Every operational choice—from workforce planning to supply purchasing—shapes access, cost and sustainability. That is why many children’s hospitals are now seeking to connect physician enterprise analytics with supply chain insight, creating a more complete picture of how resources support care delivery across the organization.

For pediatric healthcare systems, this connection likely matters because supply chain challenges look very different than in adult healthcare facilities. Children’s hospitals rely on products that can't simply be “sized down” from adult use, yet many national contracts are built around adult-driven volume requirements. This leaves pediatric hospital supply chain leaders managing higher costs, sourcing constraints and increased pressure to find reliable, clinically appropriate products.

For example, programs like Premier’s Kiindo™ demonstrate what optimized pediatric hospital supply chain strategy can look like in practice. Kiindo™ brings together a pediatric-focuses sourcing and contracting team, clinical input through value analysis and a portfolio built specifically around the needs of children’s hospitals. Its collaborative model gives members a forum to identify gaps in the market, co-develop solutions and strengthen resilience when pediatric products face disruption.

These supply chain insights complement physician enterprise analytics from tools like PIVOT. While PIVOT helps healthcare leaders understand provider investment, and access and care patterns, supply chain intelligence helps them ensure that the products, equipment and services supporting that care are cost-effective and aligned with clinical need. By linking these data sets, children’s hospitals can better anticipate demand, allocate resources and reinvest savings into services that strengthen both mission and margin.

For most children’s hospitals, non-labor expenses represent a significant share of total costs[1], highlighting how smarter sourcing and resource alignment can directly influence patient care and financial performance. And when clinical, operational and supply chain teams are connected through shared pediatric-specific insights, children’s hospitals can move from incremental adjustments to truly systemwide improvement.

Final Thoughts

Children’s hospitals face some of the most complex performance challenges in healthcare, and their success requires visibility across the entire enterprise. Premier recognizes that sustainable pediatric care depends on uniting advisory services, advanced analytics and supply chain intelligence to deliver a clear picture of where opportunities lie.

By connecting data to action, children’s hospitals can align operational decisions with their long-term mission, helping ensure that every investment drives better outcomes for kids, families and communities.

See What’s Possible

• Connect with our experts and discover how Premier’s PIVOT platform can help your children’s hospital align analytics, technology and supply chain strategy to improve access, efficiency and financial resilience.

Footnotes:

[1] Costs of caring: AHA. American Hospital Association. (2025, April 30). https://www.aha.org/costsofcaring

[2] Data based on Premier’s PIVOT database from 2022 to 2025.