An examination of the relationships between home health service use and primary diagnosis of patient.

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This paper analyses the relationships between home health service use and primary diagnosis of patient. Relationships examined include: patient distribution by diagnosis, visit distribution by diagnosis, average number of visits per patient and standard deviation, by diagnosis. Reliability of diagnosis as a predictor or service use is examined by a scatter graph comparison of the mean number of visits per patient, by diagnosis, between two randomly assigned groups of agencies. Survey data indicate that circulatory system diseases are the largest diagnostic category in both patient and visit count, constituting approximately 25% of all visits. Neoplasms (11% of visits) and diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue (10% of visits) are also strongly represented. Although the range of means for average number of visits is large, the scatter graph analysis gave evidence of relationship between diagnosis and service use.