ASSESSING THE SEVERITY OF PATIENTS ILLNESSES TO BETTER MANAGE HEALTH-CARE RESOURCES

The computerized severity index (CSI) system, an intelligent decision support system (DSS), is now used as a management tool at a growing nu mber of hospitals in the US and Canada. The CSI expertly determines th e severity level of a patient's illness and enables hospital managemen t to more effectively evaluate the utilization of health care resource s and the outcome of treatments. We developed CSI methodology as a com plement to the diagnosis related groups (DRG) system that is mandated by federal law. While DRGs enable reimbursement agencies to classify p atients into groups by type of illness and define hospitals' products, health care managers need a more refined classification system to com pare the quality and economic efficiency of different treatment protoc ols, different physicians, and different hospitals.