Diagnostic Related Groups Research Articles

Early prediction of diagnostic-related groups and estimation of hospital cost by processing clinical notes

As healthcare providers receive fixed amounts of reimbursement for given services under DRG (Diagnosis-Related Groups) payment, DRG codes are valuable for cost monitoring and resource allocation. However, coding is typically performed retrospectively post-discharge. We seek to predict DRGs and DRG-based case mix index (CMI) at early inpatient admission using routine clinical text to estimate hospital cost in an acute setting. We examined a deep learning-based natural language processing (NLP) model to automatically predict per-episode DRGs and corresponding cost-reflecting weights on two cohorts (paid under Medicare Severity (MS) DRG or All Patient Refined (APR) DRG), without human coding efforts. It achieved macro-averaged area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) scores of 0·871 (SD 0·011) on MS-DRG and 0·884 (0·003) on APR-DRG in fivefold cross-validation experiments on the first day of ICU admission. When extended to simulated patient populations to estimate average cost-reflecting weights, the model increased its accuracy over time and obtained absolute CMI error of 2·40 (1·07%) and 12·79% (2·31%), respectively on the first day. As the model could adapt to variations in admission time, cohort size, and requires no extra manual coding efforts, it shows potential to help estimating costs for active patients to support better operational decision-making in hospitals.

Outcomes of “Real-World” Insulin Strategies in the Management of Hospital Hyperglycemia

ContextGuidelines recommend scheduled long-acting basal and short-acting bolus insulin several times daily to manage inpatient hyperglycemia. In the “real world,” insulin therapy is complicated, with limited data on the comparative effectiveness of different insulin strategies.ObjectiveThis work aimed to evaluate the association of different insulin strategies with glucose control and hospital outcomes after adjustment for patient and physician factors that influence choice of therapy.MethodsThis retrospective, observational study took place at an academic hospital. Participants included noncritically ill hospitalized medical/surgical patients (n = 4558) receiving subcutaneous insulin for 75% or longer during admission. Insulin therapy was grouped into 3 strategies within the first 48 hours: basal bolus (BB: scheduled long and short/rapid n = 2358), sliding scale (SS: short/rapid acting n = 1855), or basal only (BO: long only: n = 345). Main outcome measures included glucose control: hypoglycemic days, hyperglycemic days, euglycemic days, mean glucose; and hospitalization: in-hospital mortality, length of stay (LOS), and readmissions.ResultsInitial therapy with BB was associated with more hypoglycemic (2.40; CI, 2.04 to 2.82) (P < .001) and fewer euglycemic days (0.90; CI, 0.85 to 0.97) (P = .003) than SS, whereas BO was associated with fewer hyperglycemic days (0.70; CI, 0.62 to 0.79) (P < .001), lower mean glucose (–18.03; CI, –22.46 to –12.61) (P < .001), and more euglycemic days (1.22; CI, 1.09 to 1.37) (P < .001) compared to SS. No difference in mortality, LOS, and readmissions was found. However, decreased LOS was observed in the BB subgroup with a medical diagnostic related group (0.93; CI, 0.89 to 0.97) (P < .001).ConclusionBO had a more favorable hyperglycemia profile than SS. BB, on the other hand, showed worse glycemic control as compared to SS. In the real-world hospital, BO may be a simpler and more effective insulin strategy.

Algorithm of innovative medical and economic standards as a basis for the transformation of hypothetical predictions of the launch of insurance medicine

Introduction: Based of tht author's doctoral dissertation of tht problems of insurance medicine, relevant monographs and scientific articles, an attempt is presented to substantiate tht option of transforming our purely governmental national system of insurance medicine. Purpose: Using more than thirty of our innovative organizational and medico-economic standards, criteria and regulations, in tht process of their "activation" in the conditions of a full-scale experiment under the pilot project program in the Health Care institutions of various levels of medical district, to determine the level of their effectiveness to justify the specified transformation during the launch of our system of insurance medicine. Materials and methods: The object of the study was all residents (up to 2000) of the family physician's area of responsibility. On the basis of structural-logical analysis and the use of medical-economic standards, doctors' labor costs, distribution of otolaryngological diseases into clinical-statistical groups (CSG) and diagnosticrelated groups (DRG), as well as the degree of their complexity and the complexity of possible surgical interventions, thanks to the formula for calculating the labor costs of doctors and treatment process we obtained evidencebased information about real "budget" cost of treatment of diseases of a certain CSG. Results and discussion: At the first in trade part mental stage of insurance medicine, the main tool should be a system of medical and economic standards, which include the price of labor costs, in particular doctors, wage fund, rates of increasing coefficients for the treatment of complex diseases, the level of financial incentives for doctors and the like. The tables present a mechanism for calculating the evidence-based cost of treating diseases of varying degrees of complexity and physician salaries, as well as the possibilities of forming both an adequate amount of funds that "follow the patient" and forecasting the health improvement budget for the family physician's area of responsibility. Conclusions: Presented an algorithm for the implementation of our medical and economic standards, the feasibility of which has been proven in the "field" conditions of the field experiment in the process of professional management, can constitute, under conditions of its continuous improvement, the medical and economic basis for the start of our system of budgetary and insurance medicine.

Why Orthopedic Surgery for Elderly Indicates that the Maryland Total Cost of Care Model should be Universally Adopted

Arthritis is the disease that kills the fewest but cripples the most. With the aging of the population in the United States and the antiquated DRG reimbursement system for hospital surgical intervention, it is inevitable that the Medicare assistant will bankrupt itself prior to the proposed bankruptcy date of 2026 if changes are not made. It may change would be to insist that the system in Maryland for reimbursement to hospitals for essential joint replacement surgery of the elderly be adapted nationwide.

Impacto de la COVID-19 en los servicios de cirugía cardiovascular en España: Análisis de los grupos relacionados con el diagnóstico (Estudio SECCE-COVID-19 fase 2)

Introduction and objectivesThe COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus infection has saturated the Spanish health system, affecting the care of cardiovascular diseases. In this phase 2 of the SECCE-COVID-19 study we want to quantify the impact of the pandemic on the number of cardiac surgeries by analyzing the most prevalent diagnostic-related groups (DRGs) in our specialty. MethodsAt the request of the Spanish Society of Cardiovascular and Endovascular Surgery (SECCE), all the centers in the national territory that wanted to participate were asked for the data of the DRG codes number 162 (surgery on heart valves with infarction or complex diagnosis), 163 (surgery on heart valves without infarction or complex diagnosis), 165 (coronary bypass with infarction or complex diagnosis), 166 (coronary bypass without infarction or complex diagnosis) and 167 (other cardiothoracic or thoracic vascular procedures) between March 1, 2020 and September 30, 2020 (7 months), and as a control period the same dates of the year 2019. ResultsData were received from 24 Hospital Centers, 22 public and 2 private. There was a global decrease in the number of interventions of 30% (Range -19 a -42%, p < 0.001) from 4648 in 2019 to 3262 in 2020 (-1386 difference), being +7% for the GRD 162 (p = 0.500), -37% for 163 (p = 0.001), -9% for 165 (p = 0,304), -32% for 166 (p = 0.001) and -16% for 167(p = 0.062). ConclusionsThere was a statistical significant global decrease in surgeries in 2020 of 30% compared to 2019 between March 1 and September 30.

Diagnosis-Related Group (DRG)-Based Prospective Hospital Payment System can be well adopted for Acute Care Surgery: Taiwanese Experience with Acute Cholecystitis.

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) is a common procedure for cholelithiasis paid by diagnostic-related groups (DRGs) systems. However, acute cholecystitis (AC) patients usually have heterogeneous conditions that compromise the successful implementation of DRGs. We evaluated the quality/efficiency of treating AC patients under the DRG system in Taiwan. All AC patients who underwent LC between October 2015 and December 2016 were included. Patient demographics, treatment outcomes, and financial results were analyzed. Patients were reimbursed by one of the two DRG schemes based on their comorbidities/complications (CC): DRG-1, LC without CC; and DRG-2, LC with CC. Hospitals were reimbursed the costs incurred if they were below the lower threshold (balanced sector); with the outlier threshold if costs were between the lower and outlier thresholds (profitable sector); and with the outlier threshold plus 80% of the exceeding cost if costs were higher than the outlier threshold (profit-losing sector). Among 246 patients, 114 were paid by DRG-1, and 132 were by DRG-2. In total, 195 of 246 patients underwent LC within 1 day after admission, and patients with mild AC had shorter hospital stays than those with moderate or severe AC. The complication rate was 7.3% with only one mortality. In total, 92.1% of patients in DRG-1 and 90.9% of patients in DRG-2 were profitable. The average margin per patient was 11,032 TWD for DRG-1 and 24,993 TWD for DRG-2. DRGs can be well adopted for acute care surgery, and hospitals can still provide satisfactory services without losing profit.

The Use of Minimal Invasive Surgery versus Open Approach in Hospitalized Cases.

Backgtound: The progress in development and application of Minimal Invasive Surgery (MIS) requires clinical and managerial decisions that must be evidence based; the current available scientific evidence for the Romanian medical practice is missing. Our study aims to analyze the use of MIS and open surgery in Romania and the impact of the type of surgery on the hospitalization. Methodology: A cross-sectional study analyzed the activity of the Romanian hospitals reporting primary Diagnostic Related Group (DRG) data at the patient level in the period 2008-2018; all episodes of abdominal and thoracic surgical interventions which may be performed either by MIS or an open approach were extracted from the DRG National database (www.drg.ro). A comparative analysis in terms of the volume of activity and their impact on the hospital average length of stay (ALOS) has been performed. Results: The pattern of use for MIS and open surgery interventions was changed in 2008-2018; MIS procedures doubled while open surgery interventions did not follow the same growth rate; ALOS for the MIS procedures decreased annually at a faster rate as compared to the ALOS for the open surgery and the gap between the two gradually increased in favour of the MIS interventions. The most pronounced shortening of ALOS after MIS procedures has been found for Gallbladder Surgery (by 7.95 days), Gastric Surgery (by 5.64 days) and Incisional Hernia surgery (by 4.33 days). Meanwhile, the reimbursement level for the MIS versus open surgery interventions did not changed over the analyzed period. Conclusions: MIS is significantly reducing the ALOS in Romania with a potential positive influence on the national healthcare budget. However, the pattern of use for MIS interventions is not financial incentives based and calls for in-depth analysis on other factors belonging rather to specific pathology, technology or medical practice (experience in using MIS, endowment, safety, efficacy, surgical approach area etc.) is urgently required.

Inpatient psychiatric services use during the COVID-19 pandemic in Romania

The distribution by macroregions of human resources and of the institutional treatment capacities for psychiatric disorders is uneven, which led to a very low supply of support services for psychiatric pathology during the study period. The distribution of human resource of psychiatrists in Romania is 11.88/100,000 inhabitants, far behind most European countries. Moreover, in some Romanian macroregions (2 and 4), the number of psychiatrists per 100,000 inhabitants is below the national average. A situation below the average level of distribution of human resources and hospital beds was found in Macroregion 2 and Macroregion 3. The hospitalization indicators were influenced by the conditions imposed by the state of emergency, respectively by the state of alert induced by evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic, throughout the year 2020. Thus, the most obvious changes of the diagnostic related groups (DRG) indicators in 2020 versus 2019 were: the decrease in the number of patients with affective disorders hospitalized in public hospitals; the increase in the duration of hospitalization of patients, as a proof of the severity of hospitalized cases. By the regulations of the Government Ordinance no. 252/20.03.2020, regarding the telemedicine consultations and, implicitly, the telepsychiatric ones, the discrepancy between the increased demand for psychiatric assistance and the much-diminished offer for access to hospitalizations or consultations in Romania was reduced.

Models for Heart Failure Admissions and Admission Rates, 2016 through 2018.

Background: Approximately 6.5 to 6.9 million individuals in the United States have heart failure, and the disease costs approximately $43.6 billion in 2020. This research provides geographical incidence and cost models of this disease in the U.S. and explanatory models to account for hospitals’ number of heart failure DRGs using technical, workload, financial, geographical, and time-related variables. Methods: The number of diagnoses is forecast using regression (constrained and unconstrained) and ensemble (random forests, extra trees regressor, gradient boosting, and bagging) techniques at the hospital unit of analysis. Descriptive maps of heart failure diagnostic-related groups (DRGs) depict areas of high incidence. State- and county-level spatial and non-spatial regression models of heart failure admission rates are performed. Expenditure forecasts are estimated. Results: The incidence of heart failure has increased over time with the highest intensities in the East and center of the country; however, several Northern states have seen large increases since 2016. The best predictive model for the number of diagnoses (hospital unit of analysis) was an extremely randomized tree ensemble (predictive R2 = 0.86). The important variables in this model included workload metrics and hospital type. State-level spatial lag models using first-order Queen criteria were best at estimating heart failure admission rates (R2 = 0.816). At the county level, OLS was preferred over any GIS model based on Moran’s I and resultant R2; however, none of the traditional models performed well (R2 = 0.169 for the OLS). Gradient-boosted tree models predicted 36% of the total sum of squares; the most important factors were facility workload, mean cash on hand of the hospitals in the county, and mean equity of those hospitals. Online interactive maps at the state and county levels are provided. Conclusions. Heart failure and associated expenditures are increasing. Costs of DRGs in the study increased $61 billion from 2016 through 2018. The increase in the more expensive DRG 291 outpaced others with an associated increase of $92 billion. With the increase in demand and steady-state supply of cardiologists, the costs are likely to balloon over the next decade. Models such as the ones presented here are needed to inform healthcare leaders.

Modeling the impact of obesity on cost of hip and knee arthroplasty

PurposeThis study aimed to determine the proportions of total knee arthroplasty (TKA) and total hip arthroplasty (THA) attributable to obesity in Ireland and the associated hospital costs. MethodsSex- and age-specific numbers of primary TKA and THA procedures and length of stay were estimated using Irish population data from the Central Statistics Office (sex and age) and data from the national Hospital Inpatient Enquiry (numbers of TKA and THA procedures, length of stay, diagnostic-related group codes, sex, and age). Population attributable fractions of TKA and THA related to obesity were calculated using relative risks for different weight groups obtained from published literature. Nationally representative weight and height data were available from the 2015 Healthy Ireland Survey (n = 6142) and extrapolated to the Irish population. Diagnostic-related group tariffs from the Healthcare Pricing Office were used to estimate hospital costs of TKA and THA. ResultsIn 2015, 2296 TKA and 3411 THA procedures were performed in public hospitals in Ireland. Of those procedures, 43% of TKA and 20% of THA were attributable to obesity. This equates to €16.0 million out of €52.1 million of TKA- and THA-related hospital costs. ConclusionsEffective obesity control has potential to decrease the demand for joint replacements and associated costs.

Adherence to a Hypoglycemia Protocol in Hospitalized Patients: A Retrospective Analysis.

Hypoglycemia can be a common occurrence in hospitalized patients, both those with and without diabetes. Hypoglycemia poses significant risks to hospitalized patients, including increased mortality. This was a retrospective pre-post study of hypoglycemic patients in an academic medical center of an intervention to improve timely staff nurse adherence to a hypoglycemia protocol. The number of mild and severe hypoglycemia events pre- and postintervention, timeliness of adherence to the hypoglycemia protocol, the number of treatment interventions, and time to return patients to euglycemia were analyzed. Data from hospitalizations of patients who experienced hypoglycemia (<70 mg/dl) and met inclusion criteria 1 year prior to intervention and 3 years postintervention were extracted, including demographics, glycemic control medications, diagnostic-related group, length of stay, and Charlson comorbidity index. For clarity and to determine if any significant change was sustained, the analysis compared data from 1 year prior to intervention to the second-year postintervention. A total of 7,895 unique hypoglycemic events in 3,819 patients experiencing 20,094 hypoglycemic measures were included in the analysis. Patients were primarily adult, female, and White. Only 58.7% of the sample had diabetes; the median Charlson comorbidity index was 6. Results demonstrated improvement postintervention to registered nurse hypoglycemia protocol adherence regardless of age category or hypoglycemia severity. There was a significant reduction in median time from the first hypoglycemia measure to the second measure. In addition, there was a significant difference in the number of treatment interventions and reduction in time from the first hypoglycemia measure to return of patient to a blood glucose of ≥70 mg/dl. These study results support that the use of a standardized hypoglycemia protocol and appropriate nurse workflows enables nurses to manage hypoglycemia promptly and effectively in most acute and critically ill hospitalized patients. Results also supported a differentiation in nurse workflow for patients with mild versus severe hypoglycemia. Implementing these interventions may result in avoidance or mitigation of the potential consequences of severe and/or sustained hypoglycemia.

Hospitalization Rates and Comorbidities in Patients with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy in Germany from 2010 to 2017.

Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) belongs to the disease spectrum of Parkinsonian syndromes. Due to the chronic and progressive neurodegenerative course of the disease, PSP patients often have to be hospitalized to undergo diagnostic and therapeutic measures. The dynamics and characteristics of PSP inpatient treatment in Germany have not been investigated thus far. The current study analyzed trends of inpatient treatment in Germany for the years 2010–2017 based on the German DRG statistics (“diagnostic-related groups”) in the category G23.- (other degenerative diseases of the basal ganglia) and with special focus on PSP (G23.1). Inpatient case numbers of the G23.- category comprised a total of 21,196 patients from 2010–2017, whereas the PSP subcategory (G23.1) amounted to 10,663 cases. In the analyzed time period, PSP patient numbers constantly increased from 963 in 2010 to 1780 in 2017 with yearly growth rates of up to 20%. Similar trends were observed for other Parkinsonian syndromes such as multiple system atrophy (MSA). Differentiating PSP inpatients by gender demonstrated a higher proportion of males (55–60%) in comparison to female patients for the entire observation period. The average age of hospitalized PSP patients over these years was between 72.3 and 73.4 years without relevant differences for gender. The most common comorbidities consisted of cardiovascular, neurological, muscular and urological disorders. In summary, the analysis demonstrates that PSP patients are increasingly hospitalized in Germany and the current concepts of stationary care have to differentiate standard practices for Parkinson’s disease (PD) to also address the needs of patients with PSP and other Parkinsonian syndromes.

Impact of the 13-Valent Conjugated Pneumococcal Vaccine on the Direct Costs of Invasive Pneumococcal Disease Requiring Hospital Admission in Children Aged < 5 Years: A Prospective Study.

The lack of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) cost studies may underestimate the effect of pneumococcal polysaccharide conjugated vaccines (PCV). The objective of this study was to estimate the direct costs of hospitalized IPD cases. A prospective study was made in children aged <5 years diagnosed with IPD in two high-tech hospitals in Catalonia (Spain) between 2007–2009 (PCV7 period) and 2012–2015 (PCV13 period). Costs were calculated according to 2014 Catalan Health Service rates using diagnostic-related groups. In total, 319 and 154 cases were collected, respectively. Pneumonia had the highest cost (65.7% and 62.0%, respectively), followed by meningitis (25.8% and 26.1%, respectively). During 2007–2015, the costs associated with PCV7 serotypes (Pearson coefficient (Pc) = −0.79; p = 0.036) and additional PCV13 serotypes (Pc = −0.75; p = 0.05) decreased, but those of other serotypes did not (Pc = 0.23 p = 0.62). The total mean cost of IPD increased in the PCV13 period by 31.4% (€3016.1 vs. €3963.9), mainly due to ICU stay (77.4%; €1051.4 vs. €1865.6). During the PCV13 period, direct IPD costs decreased due to a reduction in the number of cases, but cases were more severe and had a higher mean cost. During 2015, IPD costs increased due to an increase in the costs associated with non-PCV13 serotypes and serotype 3 and this requires further investigation.

Methamphetamine, Amphetamine, and MDMA Use and Emergency Department Recidivism.

Emergency department (ED) recidivism and the use of amphetamine and associated derivatives such as methamphetamine and MDMA (MAE), are intersecting public health concerns. This study aims to determine the frequency of ED recidivism of patients who use MAE and associated factors. The study was a retrospective 6-year electronic medical record review of patients with MAE-positive toxicology screens and single and multiple ED visits in the span of 12months. There were 7844 ED visits by 5568 MAE-positive patients. Average age was 42±13years. The majority were male (65%), white (46%), tobacco smokers (55%), and in the psychiatric discharge diagnostic-related group (41%), followed by blunt trauma (20%). Admission rate was 35%, with another 17% transferred to inpatient psychiatric treatment facilities. Occasional (2-5 visits/year), heavy (6-11 visits/year), and super users (≥12 visits/year) altogether accounted for 20% of patients and 43% of visits. Heavy and super users combined represented 2% of patients and 10% of visits, with significant differences for race/ethnicity, health insurance, tobacco smoking, and psychiatric/cardiovascular/trauma discharge diagnostic-related groups. Heavy and super users were less likely to be admitted and more likely to be discharged to an inpatient psychiatric treatment facility. Regression analysis revealed racial/ethnic differences, female gender, and tobacco smoking to be associated with super and heavy use. Heavy users were more likely to have cardiovascular-related discharge diagnoses. The prevalence of ED recidivism in patients who use MAE is similar to published ranges for general ED users. Significant differences in demographics, discharge diagnoses, insurance, smoking, and disposition exist between nonfrequent and frequent ED users.

PCN129 A COST-UTILITY AND BUDGET IMPACT ANALYSIS OF ENZALUTAMIDE FOR THE TREATMENT OF NONMETASTATIC CASTRATION-RESISTANT PROSTATE CANCER (NMCRPC) IN MEXICO

To assess the health and economic impact of adding enzalutamide to the Mexican healthcare system versus apalutamide for nmCRPC with high risk of progression. A semi-Markov model was built to assess the cost utility of enzalutamide + androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) versus apalutamide + ADT and ADT monotherapy in the Mexican 2018 public payer setting. The model was designed using three health states (nmCRPC; metastatic disease; death) with 1-month cycles and a time horizon of 20 years to represent complete disease history. A 5% discount was applied to costs and outcomes; metastasis-free survival was based on enzalutamide and apalutamide clinical trials. Resource use was estimated from interviews with six top oncologists; costs for drugs, adverse events, laboratory tests, and doctors’ visits were obtained from Mexican Institute of Social Security’s Diagnostic-Related Groups and unitary costs. Apalutamide cost was assumed as the average of prices in Brazil and the United States, where approved. A budget impact model with a 5-year time horizon was developed to assess the financial impact of adding enzalutamide for the nmCRPC population. Sensitivity analyses were run to assess the robustness of this appraisal. Results are presented in 2018 Mexican pesos. Total costs were MXN$1.2M for enzalutamide + ADT, MXN$1.45M for apalutamide + ADT, and MXN$11,710 for ADT alone. Enzalutamide was associated with better QALYs than apalutamide + ADT (3.75, 3.27, and 3.00, respectively). Enzalutamide dominated apalutamide and had an ICER of MXN$1.5M versus ADT. Average budget impact of enzalutamide per patient per year was MXN$42,025. Total budget impact in 5 years was MXN$500,231,902, representing 0.434% of the 2018 public budget. Enzalutamide represents a cost-effective alternative for the Mexican public healthcare system versus apalutamide for the treatment of nmCRPC, while also representing a low budget impact. FUNDING: Astellas Pharma Inc. and Medivation LLC, a Pfizer Company EDITORIAL: Complete HealthVizion

Implementation of Post-Acute Rehabilitation at Home: A Skilled Nursing Facility-Substitutive Model.

For patients who require frequent and intensive therapy services after hospitalization, rehabilitation is predominantly provided in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs). Delivering post-acute rehabilitation in patients' homes offers a potential alternative. Our aim was to describe and evaluate services and functional outcomes and then identify factors associated with the provision of a 30-day post-acute care (PAC) bundle of rehabilitation, medical, and social services provided via the Rehabilitation at Home (RaH) program. Single-arm retrospective review of patients participating in the RaH program. Multidisciplinary home-based delivery of PAC in Manhattan. Individuals 18 years or older residing in a specified catchment area and qualifying for SNF-based rehabilitation services from October 2015 to September 2017. A total of 237 patients participated in RaH over 264 episodes of care. Participants were predominantly older than 85 years (57%; mean = 84.2; standard deviation [SD] = 10.0 years) and of non-Hispanic white (70%) race and ethnicity. Most were admitted after hospitalization (88.2%) for 117 different diagnostic related groups. Average length of stay in RaH was 14.2 (SD = 6.5) days with patients receiving 1.83 (SD = 2.22) medical provider, 1.67 (SD = 1.58) nursing, and 5.24 (SD = 1.05) physical therapist visits weekly. Most of the patients fully or almost fully met their goals for bed mobility (65%), bed transfer (69%), chair transfer (67%), and ambulation (64%) with the majority achieving moderate or considerable (61%) global functional improvement. Achieving moderate or considerable global improvement was negatively associated with dementia diagnosis (odds ratio [OR] = .23; 95% confidence interval [CI] = .08-.71) and positively associated with higher baseline ambulation (OR = 5.51; 95% CI = 2.22-13.66). At 30 days, 87.3% of participants were living in the community. Delivering SNF-level post-acute rehabilitation care in patients' homes for a broad range of diagnoses is feasible and associated with functional improvement. This approach may help older adults maintain living status in the community. J Am Geriatr Soc 68:1584-1593, 2020.

Does Postoperative Cognitive Decline Result in New Disability After Surgery?

Establish whether POCD is associated with new disability after surgery, which would inform whether POCD impacts patient-centered outcomes. POCD is a decline in neuropsychiatric tests scores from presurgical baseline which occurs in approximately 15% of older patients 3 months after surgery. POCD is a research construct meant to investigate patient and family reports of older adults who were "never the same after surgery." However, many patients with POCD do not perceive difficulty with thinking and memory, and the question remains whether POCD impacts patient function. We performed a prospective cohort study of 167 older adults undergoing major noncardiac surgery (requiring at least a 2-day hospital stay). Exclusion criteria were: history of dementia, cardiac or intracranial procedure, inability to consent for themselves, or emergency surgery. We administered formal neuropsychiatric testing (Alzheimer Disease Research Center UDS battery), basic and instrumental activities of daily living (Alzheimer Disease Research Center IADLs), pain (geriatric pain measure), and depression screening (hospital depression and anxiety scale) before and 3 months after surgery. We recorded all patient refined diagnostic related groups codes, blood pressure, anesthetics and narcotics administered, surgical and anesthesia duration, and measured complications and severity, length of stay, and readmissions. Patients with POCD (21/167, 14.1%) had twice the proportion of new impairment in IADL as compared to those without POCD (57% vs 27%, P = .01). The most common areas of decline were social activities, ability to find items around the house, remember appointments, shop and pay for items, do laundry, drive a car/use public transport, and do housework. Predictors of IADL change after surgery included POCD, presurgical cognition, presurgical function, postoperative depression, and the development of postoperative complications. Patients with POCD experience a much higher incidence of new disability after surgery. Baseline cognitive or functional limitations are also risk factors for new disability. Many patients are not aware of their limitations before surgery. Future study is needed to identify practical ways to routinely screen patients and reduce risk. Patients need to be informed of their risk for new disability after surgery to inform their medical decision making.

Incorporation of expert knowledge in the statistical detection of diagnosis related group misclassification

BackgroundIn activity based funding systems, the misclassification of inpatient episode Diagnostic Related Groups (DRGs) can have significant impacts on the revenue of health care providers. Weakly informative Bayesian models can be used to estimate an episode's probability of DRG misclassification. MethodsThis study proposes a new, Hybrid prior approach which utilises guesses that are elicited from a clinical coding auditor, switching to non-informative priors where this information is inadequate. This model's ability to detect DRG revision is compared to benchmark weakly informative Bayesian models and maximum likelihood estimates. ResultsBased on repeated 5-fold cross-validation, classification performance was greatest for the Hybrid prior model, which achieved best classification accuracy in 14 out of 20 trials, significantly outperforming benchmark models. ConclusionsThe incorporation of elicited expert guesses via a Hybrid prior produced a significant improvement in DRG error detection; hence, it has the ability to enhance the efficiency of clinical coding audits when put into practice at a health care provider.

Повышение доступности радионуклидной терапии рака предстательной железы в рамках системы обязательного медицинского страхования на региональном уровне: опыт Кемеровской области

The article discusses issues of antineoplastic radiation, particularly radionuclide, therapy payment through compulsory health insurance system. Healthcare organization faces several problems in this field when introducing new treatment methods. Regulatory and infrastructural aspects of the radionuclide therapy provision are brought up. The article discusses the problem raised by the average payment for the diagnostic-related groups (DRG) at the federal level, which makes it difficult to use selected medical services with the cost above the average DRG tariff. As an example, the article describes the experience of Kemerovo region on tariff correction using subgroup split-off method for DRG that includes systemic radionuclide therapy with radium-223. Splitting the federal DRG for sub-groups gave the possibility of providing therapy to patients with prostate cancer in the region. Besides, the authors discuss the relevance and practical aspects of interregional payments in the compulsory healthcare insurance system with respect to the radionuclide therapy in order to improve the quality of medical care for patients with cancer, regardless of infrastructural restrictions and the patients’ residence.

Surveillance of malaria in mainland Portugal in 2016 after the introduction of an electronic system: is it enough?

Since 2014, imported cases of malaria have been notified by SINAVE, the Portuguese nationwide electronic surveillance system that replaced paper-based notification. Nevertheless, the disease is still believed to be under-reported. Completeness of notification of malaria cases in 2016 was estimated using a two-source capture-recapture method, with SINAVE and the Diagnostic-Related Group cases. Completeness of SINAVE and the diagnosis-related group sources was computed in 32.9% and 72.3%, respectively. The results confirm that malaria is under-reported and highlight the need for more effective notification strategies, especially given the risk of resurgence of locally acquired cases.