European Approaches To Patient Classification Systems

The book discusses European approaches to classify patients, including methodological and application issues. The basic concepts are disease severity in terms of progression of pathological processes, consumption of resources in the course of medical care, and functional incapacity in every day life as consequences of disease. Part 1 deals with classifications oriented towards diagnoses and resource use. Concepts are outlined, an overview on Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs) in Europe is given, and, for application, the management of resources and performance measurement are dealt with. Part 2 is devoted to the measurement of the severity of chronic diseases by functional approaches. The concept of the International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities and Handicaps (ICIDH) is elaborated, and respective tools applied in European Community countries are surveyed.

R. Leidl, P. Potthoff, and D. Schwefel Health is a most vital resource represented in the degree of our well-being and our ability to conduct active and satisfactory lives. Acute and chronic illnesses diminish such well-being and abilities and may require resources for medical or nursing care. The improvement in health status, a major objective of health policy, requires the measurement of the severity of diseases and their consequences as essential elements of information. In application, the measurement approaches are gaining in relevance as they become more feasible and as more experience is gathered about their implementation and utilization. The feasibility of these new information tools is supported by developments in data processing technologies that permit broadly based empirical applications. Wider applications lead to improvements in the management use of this information. At the European level, better indicator systems of diseases and their various aspects are facing an increasing demand for patient-based health and health system comparisons and analyses. The measurement of health status and its implications can comprise a number of dimensions: various concepts of health and disease, types of diseases, methodological approaches of measurement, purposes of application and states of implementation.

Summary: The volumes in the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies series focus on key issues for health policy-making in Europe. This book is a joint venture between the WHO/EO and the EuroDRG which addresses the challenges of using Diagnosis Related Group systems in Europe.

When John Thompson and I first began talking about finding a way to measure and cost the output of hospitals in the 1960s. we really had no concept of the need for this kind of result. In fact. if we had listened to others in the health services research community. we would rrever have begun or persisted in the task. But it seemed important to us to begin to understand what up until then seemed unexplainable - the rather strange cost behavior of hospitals. We had the benefit of Professor Martin Feld stein's observation that case-mix was certainly an important factor. but we had literally no guidance on how to make some sense out of the very large number of illnesses that beset the human race. and the very large number of different processes that obtain in our hospitals as they attempt to cope with those illnesses. We were fortunate to find a small number of curious and capable graduate students to join us in this effort. for without them we would not have had a chance of success. While many contrib uted to the ultimate outcome. it is important to single out Ronald E. Mills. Richard F. Averill. Youngsoo Shin. and Jean L. Freeman for their efforts over many years. The diagnosis-related groups (DRGs) constitute a way of identifying the normal output of hospitals in a consistent and exhaustive manner.

First multi-year cumulation covers six years: 1965-70.

MIE 96 is the main medical informatics and telematics event in 1996. MIE 96 is the place where users meet industry, where decision makers are presented with the available informatics and telematics solutions to major challenges in modern medicine and its delivery. An awareness is raising within the healthcare sector of the huge potential in applying IT-based solutions as means for quality assurance and cost-containment.