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Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) remains one of the most common indications for pediatric hospitalization in the United States, and it is frequently the focus of research and quality studies. Use of administrative data is increasingly common for these purposes, although proper validation is required to ensure valid study conclusions.

To validate administrative billing data for hospitalizations owing to childhood CAP.

Case-control study of 4 tertiary care, freestanding children’s hospitals in the United States.

A total of 998 medical records of a 25% random sample of 3646 children discharged in 2010 with at least 1International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) code representing possible pneumonia were reviewed. Discharges (matched on date of admission) without a pneumonia-related discharge code were also examined …