Predicting length of stay for Medicare patients at a teaching hospital.

This research examines how the patients' characteristics and clinical indicators affect length of stay for the top five Diagnosis-Related-Groups (DRGs) for Medicare patients at a teaching hospital in the United States. The top DRGs were selected on the basis of volume per year. Teaching hospitals in the United States devote a significant amount of their resources to research and teaching, while providing treatment for patients. The ability to predict length of stay can substantially improve a teaching hospital's capacity utilization, while ensuring that resources are available to meet the health care needs of the Medicare population. Multiple regression models are developed to predict the length of stay using the patients' characteristics and clinical indicators as independent variables. The results indicate that approximately 60 percent (R(2)) of the variance in the length of stay is explained by the patients' characteristics and clinical indicators for these DRGs. The Mortality and Severity indices are found to be the strongest predictors for length of stay in all DRGs. Other patients' characteristics and clinical indicators such as age, gender, race/ethnicity, marital status, admission type and admission source are also significant predictors for some DRGs. In addition, most of these variables affect the length of stay in the same manner as shown in previous studies, even though the previous studies do not have the DRG specificity of this study.

Quality function deployment: application to rehabilitation services.

Describes how the challenge of providing rehabilitative services at reasonable costs is beginning to mount. The management of quality in rehabilitative services is therefore gaining increasing attention in the health care arena. States that if a link is implied between the above stated goal and customer satisfaction, it is imperative to evaluate quality or customer satisfaction in the context of the patient's experience. Describes the quality function deployment (QFD) system and how it leads to a better understanding of the customer's needs and wants. Explores the process of applying the concept of QFD to physical therapy.

Total quality management as a health care corporate strategy.

Total quality management (TQM) must become a part of corporate strategy if it is to become a way of life in health care. TQM should be understood in the context of a cultural transformation. The greatest challenge for top management is to create an organization in which every employee, department and function is linked inextricably to the organization's mission and vision. One of the key benefits of TQM is the use of teams to work on and achieve organizational objectives. Health care managers must understand motivation in order to carry the workforce with them to attain those objectives.

Total quality management in the HMO environment.

Increasing numbers of healthcare organization are turning to total quality management (TQM) to contain costs and improve quality. This article describes the implication of TQM for health maintenance organizations.

Quality of care and the patient: new criteria for evaluation.

Quality in health care has two critical components: quality in practice and quality in perception. The first involves meeting your own or some other set of standards; the second, meeting your customers' expectations. Neither of these essentials will, by itself, carry a hospital far. This article examines the extent to which customer perception is important in understanding the concept of quality in health care.