Evaluating Inpatient Costs: The Staging Mechanism

Inpatient records at a short-term hospital over two years were analyzed according to the stage or degree of severity of their discharge diagnosis to examine their utilization of services. Patients with a more severe disease stage for surgical and medical conditions generated substantially higher tot...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Medical care 1978-03, Vol.16 (3), p.191-201
Main Authors: Garg, Mohan L., Louis, Daniel Z., Gliebe, Werner A., Spirka, Craig S., Skipper, James K., Parekh, Ramesh R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Appendicitis
Costs and Cost Analysis
Diabetes
Digestive system diseases
Disease - economics
Economics, Hospital
Fees and Charges
Health care costs
Hospital utilization rate
Humans
Length of stay
Quality of Health Care
Stomach
Stomach diseases
Stomach diverticulosis
Stomach ulcer
United States
Utilization Review - economics
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Summary:Inpatient records at a short-term hospital over two years were analyzed according to the stage or degree of severity of their discharge diagnosis to examine their utilization of services. Patients with a more severe disease stage for surgical and medical conditions generated substantially higher total charges, ancillary charges, and had longer lengths of stay. At the 75th percentile (representing that value at which three-quarters of the cases fall below it in magnitude), increases in total charges from Stage I to II for ulcer of stomach, appendicitis, and diverticulitis were 103, 168, and 110 per cent, respectively. Ancillary charges for these diseases showed even greater increases, 167, 200, and 160 per cent, respectively. Components of ancillary charges revealed similar trends. The results suggest that a twofold review mechanism incorporating length of stay and charges, using the staging technique, would make the review procedure more discriminating in identifying cases appropriate for review.
ISSN:0025-7079
1537-1948
DOI:10.1097/00005650-197803000-00002