title: Workload measurement system analyses out-patient costs.
abstract: The in-patient and one-day-care analyses focus on hospital patients and patient categories and the impact of these categories on each department and on the hospital, whereas the out-patient analyses use the requesting clinical service as the patient category. The approach taken to the analyses of out-patient workload is much simpler that the approach to the categorization and analysis of in-patient and one-day-care stays. The simpler approach to the analysis of out-patient services provides meaningful yet easy-to-use information for a relatively low investment of time and effort. Future endeavors to analyse the costs of out-patient services should link together all visits to hospital departments associated with a particular "out-patient case" (which may take place over several days). To accommodate such analyses of hospital out-patient products, complete hospital out-patient products (that is, categories of cases) that are more analogous to in-patient categories must be defined.
mesh_terms: D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D003953:Diagnosis-Related Groups; D008331:Management Information Systems; D009864:Ontario; D010044:Outpatient Clinics, Hospital / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration*; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis