title: Reliability and validity of the Severity of Illness Index.
abstract: The authors discuss the objectives and definition of the Severity of Illness Index, which has been developed and refined at The Johns Hopkins University over the past 5 years. In addition, the training program for raters, the method used to ascertain reliability, and data from reliability testing in 18 hospitals are described. After at least 2 months' experience with severity scoring, the average agreement between hospital raters and the staff reliability rater varied between 90.8% and 97.7%, with an overall weighted average agreement of 93.5%. Several methods to evaluate the validity of the Index are presented. The conclusion is that the Severity of Illness Index is a reliable and valid tool for measuring inpatient severity of illness.
authors.forename: S D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Horn
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Horn
mesh_terms: D000043:Abstracting and Indexing / Q000592:standards; D003625:Data Collection / Q000592:standards; D003953:Diagnosis-Related Groups; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006761:Hospitals; D006786:Hospitals, Urban; D006801:Humans; D007318:Inservice Training; D008499:Medical Records / Q000592:standards*; D008722:Methods; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014481:United States