Using DRGS to Conduct Utilization Review in Naval Hospitals

摘要

To study length of stay practices within large hospital systems such as the Navy Medical Department, one must be able to identify groups of patients that are clinically homogeneous with respect to length of stay. This study compares the Diagnosis Related Group (DRG) patient grouping technique with traditional grouping techniques based on patient primary diagnosis code for each method's ability to explain differences in patient length of stay in naval hospitals.