Severity-of-illness systems. An overview for medical directors--Part one

To a baseball fan, the weight of a player's bat is not very important, and the grace with which it is swung has only slightly more appeal. Both these factors matter far less than how often and with what results the bat meets the ball. Similarly, in today's competitive health care environment, the medical director has to focus on results. Not only external demands from constituencies such as insurers, payers, consumers, and regulators, but also internal pressures for sound management decisions require accurate information about the outcomes of care. In this two-part article, the authors examine the contributions that severity-of-illness systems can make to outcomes monitoring.