Health, 2021, 13, 81-89 https://www.scirp.org/journal/health ISSN Online: 1949-5005 ISSN Print: 1949-4998 DOI: 10.4236/health.2021.132008 Feb. 2, 2021 81 Health Correlation between an Independent Electronic Health Record & External Ranking of Children’s Hospitals Lane F. Donnelly 1,2,3* , David Scheinker 1,2 , Natalie M. Pageler 1,2 , Andrew Y. Shin 1,2 1 Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, Stanford, Stanford Children’s Health, Stanford, California, USA 2 Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA 3 Department of Radiology, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA Abstract Introduction: To evaluate the correlation between the presence of an inde- pendent EHR (compared to a shared EHR system within an adult hospital system) and an externally-derived third party ranking of children’s hospitals. Methods: Children’s hospitals that ranked in the top fifty of the 2019-2020 US News and World Report (USNWR) were included in the analysis. The mean and median ranking of children’s hospitals with independent versus a shared EHR was evaluated. The 2019-2020 USNWR rankings of the top twenty adult hospitals in the United States were then evaluated. For each children’s hospital with an associated adult hospital that was both ranked, it was noted as to whether the EHR for the children’s hospital was independent or shared and statistical differences in rankings compared. Results: Among the top 50 children’s hospitals included, the median USNWR ranking for hospitals was statistically different with an independent EHR than with a shared EHR (13 vs. 30.0) (p = 0.002). The 21 top ranked adult hospitals were associated with 17 children’s hospitals ranked in the top 50. The median ranking for those with an independent EHR was statistically different for those with indepen- dent EHR versus shared EHR (7 vs. 28) (p = 0.002). Conclusion: Children’s hospitals with an independent EHR are associated with higher scores on an independent external ranking of hospital quality compared to those which share an EHR with a partner adult hospital. Keywords Electronic Health Record, Quality, Pediatrics How to cite this paper: Donnelly, L.F., Scheinker, D., Pageler, N.M. and Shin, A.Y. (2021) Correlation between an Indepen- dent Electronic Health Record & External Ranking of Children’s Hospitals. Health, 13, 81-89. https://doi.org/10.4236/health.2021.132008 Received: December 30, 2020 Accepted: January 30, 2021 Published: February 2, 2021 Copyright © 2021 by author(s) and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access