DRGs and documentation: the information problem

Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs) are becoming a new "information standard" for hospital comparisons in Europe. The availability of countrywide uniform medical record abstracts increased largely between 1982 and 1987 among EEC countries, following the definition of the European Minimum Basic Data Set. Diagnoses could easily be compared with reference to the ICD-9-CM code, while procedures have required mapping because the national coding schemes and because of the lack of an appropriate WHO classification for procedures. Financial data remain another area that should benefit from international comparisons. Data reliability depends largely on information uses and feedback to users. The AIM program of the EEC provides a good opportunity to initiate hospital data comparisons and to begin international research on indexes of severity, intensity and quality of care. The European scale is needed to compare hospital costs and outcomes with results from the U.S.A.