Implementing a DRG-driven acuity system for nurse staffing under prospective hospital payment

The "DRG-Nursing Unit Manager" is a multifunctional microcomputer software product designed for the effective management of nursing under a DRG prospective payment environment. The system's signature is its simplicity and versatility, and will prove to be a significant management tool for the nursing department. Written to execute on the IBM-PC-XT microcomputer, the nurse can start an application, enter patient demographics, assign Major Diagnostic Category (MDC) and Diagnosis Related Group (DRG) numbers, or make report selections. With a minimal amount of keyboard usage the system collects and saves key data fields, retrieves nursing measures and length of stay norms, and produces reports on a demand basis. The primary report produced by the system is a patient census listing with expected nursing intensities per patient for the next shift which is converted to a staffing projection for the upcoming three shifts for the existing census. The system also allows the costing out of nursing services and produces charge-equivalent statistics so that the nursing station can function as a revenue-producing center. Such an approach permits the identification of DRGs which are "winners" or "losers" under routine care costs.