THE DEVELOPMENT OF HEALTH-CARE RESOURCE GROUPS - VERSION 3

The use of casemix classifications to assist in the analysis of patien t-based information is becoming more widespread and routine in the man agement of the National Health Service (NHS), This paper details the p rocess of modification of and the results of modifications to Healthca re Resource Groups (HRGs), an in-patient classification tailor-made fo r the English healthcare system. Clinical expertise and extensive stat istical analysis of national data were combined to identify areas of H RGs Version 2 where improvement could be made. The ensuing changes wer e then reviewed by professional associations and the wider NHS before being incorporated into grouping software. Extensive changes were made to the classification, with significant gains in statistical performa nce. Analysis shows that the revised groupings perform better on Engli sh data than other available systems.