Computation of Production Costs of Inpatients: Some Implications for Discharge Abstracting

The content of discharge abstracts (or ‘morbidity statistics forms’ as they are popularly known in Australia) is determined by perceived needs for information about inpatients. It should be sensitive to changes in those needs. The emergence of interest in diagnosis related group (DRG) data has had an impact on discharge abstracting. However, revisions have been minor because the DRG system was designed to make use of the standard discharge data set in the United States. In Australia, it has been necessary only to adjust practices to bring them more or less in line with the American standard. In the near future, however, it is likely that more significant changes will be needed. In this paper the authors discuss one new area of interest concerning measurement of resource use by DRG. They suggest that it will lead to the addition of new fields on the discharge abstract and to major changes in the way that discharges are defined. (AMRJ (1989). 19(2), 56–62).