Comparative Workload Prediction Models for the Medical Care Composite Unit andthe Medical Work Unit Systems for Health Services Command

摘要

This study examines the issue of whether U.S. Army Health Services Command (HSC)medical treatment facilities altered their Fiscal Year 1989 workload in response to the partial implementation of the new Diagnosis Related Group (DRG) based resourcing system. This Congresssionally mandated change for the military health care system has positive and negative aspects. This paper presents both sides of the issue, as well as an historical overview of DRGs. Definitions of terminology relating to the system and detail concerning the functioning of DRG based resource allocation provide an understanding of the statistical analysis which follows. This project examines variances and relationships in workload reporting for HSC and for individual facilities between FY88 and FY89 through statistical techniques. The study addresses reasons why facilities apparently have not found it in their interest to alter their workload. This research evaluates the impact of independent variables which measure resourcing and demography at each of the HSC medical treatment facilities on HSC workload, as counted in both medical care composite units (MCCUs) and medical work units (MWUs). After assessing the impact of these variables through regression analysis, this paper presents a model to predict both MWU and MCCU workload values given the influence of the demographic and resourcing variables.