Child readmission has been studied by many authors both in Brazil and abroad. Although most of them have mentioned the relationship between readmissions, child life conditions and quality of health service provided, there is a lack of accurate criteria to realize the real extension of the problem and why it occurs so much in our reality. This explorative-descriptive study, as part of a major research, attempted to understand the problem of children readmission in the Centro Geral de Pediatria (CGP), a pediatric hospital in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, from January to December, 1993. The results showed that children readmissions are more frequent than it has been recorded by the Hospital; there is a predominance of avoidable diseases as cause of readmissions, and most of rehospitalized children came from the surroundings of the capital city where the poor population live in precarious life conditions. So, the data showed that the Institution criteria have not been sufficient to highlight the extension of the problem.
Child assistance; Hospitalized child; Pediatric readmission