This paper discusses a study conducted to identify factors that contributed to increased length of stay for two diagnosis related groups (DRGs) and their consequential impact on nursing salaries. The study shows that three separate clusters of cost drivers (DRG-related, nurse-related, and patient-related) contributed to increased length of stay for DRG 177 (chronic obstructive airways disease) ...

The escalating cost of medical care in most industrial countries has given impetus to several different strat egies designed to impose limitations on cost and introduce efficiency into health care systems. In the United States of America, legislation was passed in 1983 to introduce a system of prospective payment for Medicare hospital expenditures. This change was a departure from the previous ...

The adoption by Medicare in 1983 of prospective payment using diagnosis-related groups (DRGs) has stimulated research to develop case-mix grouping schemes that more accurately predict resource consumption by patients. In this article, the authors explore a new method designed to improve case-mix classification for newborns through the use of birth weight in combination with DRGs to adjust the u...

This paper examines the quality of routinely collected information in an Iranian hospital in a trial of casemix classification. Australian Refined Diagnosis Related Groups (AR-DRG) were used to classify patient episodes. There were 327 DRGs identified, of which 20% had only 1 case. The grouper program identified invalid records for 4% of total separations. Approximately 4.5% of cases were class...

The 28-percent change in average Medicare inpatient cost per case between 1984 and 1987 is decomposed into three components: input price inflation, changes in average cost within diagnosis-related groups (DRGs) (intensity), and changes in the distribution of cases across DRGs (case mix). We estimate the contributions of technology diffusion and outpatient shifts to within-DRG and across-DRG cos...

BACKGROUND Many studies have demonstrated a rise in computed tomography (CT) utilization in abstract children's hospitals. However, CT utilization may be declining, perhaps due to awareness of potential hazards of pediatric ionizing radiation, such as increased risk of malignancy. Th e objective is to assess the trend in CT utilization in hospitalized children at freestanding children's hospita...