TY - JOUR
T1 - DRG coding practice
T2 - A nationwide hospital survey in Thailand
AU - Pongpirul, Krit
AU - Walker, Damian G.
AU - Rahman, Hafizur
AU - Robinson, Courtland
N1 - Funding Information:
This study would not be possible without cooperation from hospital respondents. We also would like to thank Professor Richard H. Morrow for his comments during the preparation of this manuscript and Miss Sudarat Chadsuthi for her help with the production of some figures. This study is a part of the first author’s dissertation project “Hospital Coding Practice, Data Quality, and DRG-based Reimbursement under the Thai Universal Coverage Scheme”, which received partial financial support from the Health Insurance System Research Office (HISRO), Thailand. He also received the Higher Educational Strategic Scholarships for Frontier Research Network, from the Commission on Higher Education, Thailand.
PY - 2011
Y1 - 2011
N2 - Background: Diagnosis Related Group (DRG) payment is preferred by healthcare reform in various countries but its implementation in resource-limited countries has not been fully explored. Objectives. This study was aimed (1) to compare the characteristics of hospitals in Thailand that were audited with those that were not and (2) to develop a simplified scale to measure hospital coding practice. Methods. A questionnaire survey was conducted of 920 hospitals in the Summary and Coding Audit Database (SCAD hospitals, all of which were audited in 2008 because of suspicious reports of possible DRG miscoding); the questionnaire also included 390 non-SCAD hospitals. The questionnaire asked about general demographics of the hospitals, hospital coding structure and process, and also included a set of 63 opinion-oriented items on the current hospital coding practice. Descriptive statistics and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) were used for data analysis. Results: SCAD and Non-SCAD hospitals were different in many aspects, especially the number of medical statisticians, experience of medical statisticians and physicians, as well as number of certified coders. Factor analysis revealed a simplified 3-factor, 20-item model to assess hospital coding practice and classify hospital intention. Conclusion: Hospital providers should not be assumed capable of producing high quality DRG codes, especially in resource-limited settings.
AB - Background: Diagnosis Related Group (DRG) payment is preferred by healthcare reform in various countries but its implementation in resource-limited countries has not been fully explored. Objectives. This study was aimed (1) to compare the characteristics of hospitals in Thailand that were audited with those that were not and (2) to develop a simplified scale to measure hospital coding practice. Methods. A questionnaire survey was conducted of 920 hospitals in the Summary and Coding Audit Database (SCAD hospitals, all of which were audited in 2008 because of suspicious reports of possible DRG miscoding); the questionnaire also included 390 non-SCAD hospitals. The questionnaire asked about general demographics of the hospitals, hospital coding structure and process, and also included a set of 63 opinion-oriented items on the current hospital coding practice. Descriptive statistics and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) were used for data analysis. Results: SCAD and Non-SCAD hospitals were different in many aspects, especially the number of medical statisticians, experience of medical statisticians and physicians, as well as number of certified coders. Factor analysis revealed a simplified 3-factor, 20-item model to assess hospital coding practice and classify hospital intention. Conclusion: Hospital providers should not be assumed capable of producing high quality DRG codes, especially in resource-limited settings.
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U2 - 10.1186/1472-6963-11-290
DO - 10.1186/1472-6963-11-290
M3 - Article
C2 - 22040256
AN - SCOPUS:80055016226
SN - 1472-6963
VL - 11
JO - BMC health services research
JF - BMC health services research
M1 - 290
ER -