The identifier concept: clinical parameters to stratify hospital costs within gastroenterology DRGs

Prospective payment systems using the diagnostic related group (DRG) payment mechanism are changing the incentives offered to hospitals. We studied hospital costs of all gastroenterological (GI) patients (n = 2500) treated during a 2-yr period at our academic medical center. We showed that patients within GI DRGs could be grouped regarding hospital costs by four clinical variables: intensive care unit or emergency admission, and blood or plasma product consumption. Patients within each DRG with the variable usually had higher total hospital costs, a longer stay in the hospital, a greater number of diagnoses, more outliers, and a poorer outcome than patients without the variables. As the variables accumulated, these differences became more pronounced. This study demonstrated that hospital costs may be stratified within GI DRGs by clinical parameters that occur during the patient's hospital stay. These four variables could identify higher cost patients within a DRG; cost containment could then be directed at these patients with, hopefully, resultant savings.