Appendectomy is a common and relatively simple procedure to remove an inflamed appendix, but the rate of appendectomy varies widely across Europe. This paper investigates factors that explain differences in resource use for appendectomy. We analysed 106,929 appendectomy patients treated in 939 hospitals in 10 European countries. In stage 1, we tested the performance of three models in explainin...

The 1983 amendments to the Social Security Act (Public Law 98-21) provided for a prospective payment system (PPS), effective October 1, 1983, for most short-stay hospitals certified to provide inpatient services to Medicare beneficiaries. A brief description of the assignment process for diagnosis-related groups (DRGs) is presented, because assigning a DRG code to a short-stay hospital discharg...

BACKGROUND The prospective reimbursement of hospitals through the grouping of patients into a finite number of categories (Diagnosis Related Groups, DRGs), is common to many European countries. However, the specific categories used vary greatly across countries, using different characteristics to define group boundaries and thus those characteristics which result in different payments for treat...

Introduction Flat rates based on Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs) are being introduced in a growing number of countries to remunerate acute inpatient treatment. In doing so, it will have to be decided – among other things – whether inpatient emergency services should be remunerated separately from the DRG flat rates or as part of them. Without separate remuneration, there may be a perception, or...

Preface The increase in the cost of hospital care has been a persistent and growing problem for both the Medicare program and the general public for more than iS years. A substantial portion of the increase in hospital costs has been attributed to an increase in the use of new and existing medical technologies. Congress recently legislated a new prospective per-case payment system for the Medic...

BACKGROUND Hospital costs and cost drivers in palliative care are poorly analysed. It remains unknown whether current German Diagnosis-Related Groups, mainly relying on main diagnosis or procedure, reproduce costs adequately. The aim of this study was therefore to analyse costs and reimbursement for inpatient palliative care and to identify relevant cost drivers. METHODS Two-center, standardi...

Introduction The aim of this research is to inform the health professionals about the ways of introducing and operating the the Diagnosis Related Groups (DRG's) system in the Hellenic National Health System, through the use of the development technologies. An effort is also made to explore the main dimensions of the implementation of the DRG's system, in specific European-Countries that have bo...

One of the earliest documented molecular events after sciatic nerve injury in adult rats is the rapid, long-term upregulation of the immediate early gene transcription factor c-Jun mRNA and protein in lumbar dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons, suggesting that c-Jun may regulate genes that are important both in the early post-injury period and during later peripheral axonal regeneration. However...