Pounds of cure: chart weight as a measure of service intensity

Southern Medical Journal
Daniel ShineAnca Andrei

Abstract

Intensity of hospital services is often estimated by length of stay (LOS). Increasing demands for documentation in the medical record suggested to us an alternate method: weighing the chart. In a retrospective study, we compared LOS and chart weight as predictors of actual hospital costs at a community teaching hospital. We reviewed a sample of 123 patients randomly chosen from the medical service and stratified by phase of the academic year. Both least-squares regression and a multiple sampling/validating technique were used to derive mean cost per ounce of chart and per day of stay. Costs estimated from weight were within 7% and from LOS within 14% of measured actual costs among patients not used to derive the formulae. We conclude that the intensity of paper documentation closely reflects actual costs; the same may be true of bytes or key-strokes for electronic records.

References

Oct 3, 2001·Lancet·X H Wehrens, T Leiner
Oct 3, 2001·Lancet·J Szwarcberg, D M Nierman

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