Diagnosis-Related Groups Analysis of Medical Care in Four American Cities

The introduction of diagnosis-related groups (DRGs) into American medical care is having a considerable impact on hospital finance and utilization. Patterns of patient care for individual physicians will also be assessable with this system. We evaluated a one-year sample of data on hospital admissions for ear, nose, and throat disorders in four comparable American cities for length of stay variations. The trends from city to city included a wide variation in rates of admission per population of 100,000, especially in the major head and neck surgery category. Patterns of disease, specifically with regard to dysequilibrium and childhood salivary glands, may be a potentially unknown problem for the communities involved. Even though the present DRG system may be an oversimplified method of describing medical care, it does provide useful information for otolaryngologists-head and neck surgeons.