[The DRG responsible physician in trauma and orthopedic surgery. Surgeon, encoder, and link to medical controlling]

Precise coding is an essential requirement in order to generate a valid DRG. The aim of our study was to evaluate the quality of the initial coding of surgical procedures, as well as to introduce our "hybrid model" of a surgical specialist supervising medical coding and a nonphysician for case auditing.

The department's DRG responsible physician as a surgical specialist has profound knowledge both in surgery and in DRG coding. At a Level 1 hospital, 1000 coded cases of surgical procedures were checked.

In our department, the DRG responsible physician who is both a surgeon and encoder has proven itself for many years. The initial surgical DRG coding had to be corrected by the DRG responsible physician in 42.2% of cases. On average, one hour per working day was necessary.

The implementation of a DRG responsible physician is a simple, effective way to connect medical and business expertise without interface problems. Permanent feedback promotes both medical and economic sensitivity for the improvement of coding quality.