Data from 94 Alabama hospitals are examined to determine the relative profitability of sixteen outpatient Diagnosis Related Groups. Analysis of variance and Bonferroni multiple comparisons are made. Supplemental outpatient services are shown to be the most profitable outpatient service studied. Citation: Hegji, Charles, (2007) "A brief look at hospital profits by outpatient services offered." E...

EMRs enable medical practices to manage information in ways that would be difficult or impossible with paper medical records. This holds immense promise to improve quality of care and prevent medical errors. However, since EMRs frequently produce new information that has to be dealt with, they can increase work for clinical personnel. This column will explore some examples of this phenomenon fr...

Introduction. Ambulatory surgery is not commonly practiced in Asia. A 23-hour ambulatory (AS23) service was implemented at our institute in March 2004 to allow more surgeries to be performed as ambulatory procedures. In this study, we reviewed the impact of the AS23 service on breast cancer surgeries and reviewed surgical outcomes, including postoperative complications, length of stay, and 30-d...

This article describes a case-mix measure for application in ambulatory populations. The method is based primarily on categorization of diagnoses according to their likelihood of persistence. Fifty-one combinations (the ambulatory care groups or ACGs) result from applying multivariate techniques to maximize variance explained in use of services and ambulatory care charges. The method is tested ...

There has been a slower uptake of ambulatory cataract surgery in the UK than the USA. We believe the primary aim of ambulatory cataract surgery is improved patient care. This prospective study assessed the perceptions and individual characteristics of patients undergoing ambulatory cataract surgery. This study demonstrates that 97.7% of patients undergoing ambulatory cataract surgery recommend ...