A Study to Identify Variables Contributing to Length of Stay for Selected Diagnosis Related Groups (DRG) at Madigan Army Medical Center

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between ten independent variables and the length of hospital stays of 400 cases which fell within four frequently occurring Diagnosis Related Groups (DRG) at Madigan Army Medical Center. The independent variables were patient category, marital status, day of the week admitted, day of the week discharged, preadmission testing, discharge planning, discharge destination, number of laboratory tests, number of radiological procedures, and number of consults. Additional DRG-specific independent variables were also included in the model. The additional variables were emergency admission, premature delivery, and passes in conjunction with the day of admission and/or discharge. Regression analysis was used to determine which variables were significantly associated with length of stay. Aspects of all variables, except marital status, emergency admission, and discharge destination, were found to be significantly associated with either longer or shorter lengths of stay for one or more of the DRGs. These results combined with additional analysis of the data indicated that there are physician practice patterns which have to change under a DRG based resource allocation system.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 07, 1989
Accession Number
ADA237920

Entities

People

  • Neal E. Stockmyer

Organizations

  • Academy of Health Sciences

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Health Care
  • Health Services
  • Hospitals
  • Information Science
  • Medical Personnel
  • Patient Care
  • Regression Analysis
  • Therapy

Fields of Study

  • Medicine

Readers

  • Medical or Health Care Field.
  • Operations Research
  • Regression Analysis.