HEADACHE CODING AND DIAGNOSTIC-RELATED GROUPS - A SURVEY OF ONE YEARSADMISSIONS TO A NEUROLOGICAL DEPARTMENT

In 1995, the introduction of Diagnostic Related Groups (DRGs) within t he Italian National Health Service (NHS) significantly changed the mod e of payment for hospital admissions. The ICD-IX system is the fundame ntal instrument by which to identify various clinical entities; howeve r, its codes still refer to an old international classification of dis eases. Headache disorders are now diagnosed according to the new class ification of the International Headache Society, and their recognition using ICD-D: codes appears to be increasingly inadequate. We evaluate d 1-year admissions for ''headache'' in our Department of Neurology ac cording to the new DRG system, and paid particular attention to the pr oblems related to compilation of the patient discharge schedule. The m ost common mistakes affecting the definition of DRGs and the admission costs for the NHS were also examined.