Community based analysis of Medicare inpatient utilization: DRG 468

This study of Medicare inpatients in Syracuse, New York; demonstrated that most DRG 468 discharges were produced by a limited range of procedures and diagnoses. It also showed that patients were assigned to DRG 468 because of procedures wholly unrelated to the principal diagnoses, procedures that resulted from systemic difficulties, and procedures clinically unrelated to principal diagnoses which were assigned to different MDCs by DRG logic.