Applying RUG-III in Japanese long-term care facilities.
A U.S. nursing home case-mix system, Resource Utilization Group, Version III (RUG-III), was tested in a variety of Japanese long-term care facilities. Staff time and resident characteristics were measured for a sample of 871 patients. Acceptable reliability was found for items defining RUG-III, and the system explained 44% of the variance in wage-weighted staff time (cost). Also, Japanese and U.S. costs had similar patterns across RUG-III categories. However, there was wide discrepancy between the stated purpose of Japanese facilities and their patient populations, and the current payment mechanism did not reflect actual use of resources.
Faculty of Policy Management, Keio University, School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
N
N
Ikegami
B E
BE
Fries
Y
Y
Takagi
S
S
Ikeda
T
T
Ibe
D000368:Aged; D003953:Diagnosis-Related Groups; D006295:Health Resources / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006707:Homes for the Aged / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006763:Hospitals, Chronic Disease / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008134:Long-Term Care / Q000145:classification*