WHAT DOES THE MEAN STAY OF DIAGNOSIS RELA TED GROUPS MEASURE

BACKGROUND: The systems for classifying patients into homogeneous grou ps of resource consumption such as diagnosis related groups (DRG) use mean stay (MS) as the principal predictive variable of this consumer e ntity. The standard of MS for each DRG is usually defined as the MS of this DRG in one group of hospitals. This method omits the existence o f unnecessary days of hospitalization which are added to the standard and may be identified by review of hospitalary use. METHODS: A retrosp ective review of the clinical need for 933 days of hospitalization (19 0 days of admission plus 743 successive stays for the same) in 190 cas es of 167 DRG (appendicectomy without complications or comorbidity in those under the age of 70 years) in 8 public hospitals in Valencia (Sp ain) was performed by the Appropriateness Use Evaluation Protocol. RES ULTS: Four days of admission (2.1%) and 284 successive stays (38.2%) w ere considered unnecessary from a clinical point of view. Necessary MS was estimated as 3.4 days for GRD vs the 5.1 days of MS observed. CON CLUSIONS: The common construction of standards of mean stay per diseas e demonstrates an important proportion of unnecessary use of hospitali zation, the correction of which would allow a reduction in the mean co sts of the process without a reduction in the quality of care.