[Explanatory indicators of the length of stay in a pneumology department].
BACKGROUND
Utilization of Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs') for hospital payments in France.


OBJECTIVE
To search the variations and the explicative factors of length of stay in a pneumologic unit, to analyse the relevance of the indicators by using the DRG's and the supplementary variables in a medical and economical perspective.


METHODS
Pneumologic unit of Limoges' teaching hospital.


METHODS
From 1-4-93 to 31-5-94, a prospective study analysed 1081 stays (one-day-longer) by the medical unit summary and by some variables describing the stay (planned admission, appropriateness), the patient (physical mobility at entrance, severity of disease), the procedures (physiotherapy, social needs). Statistical tests associated univariate analysis, linear and logistic regressions, hierarchic segmentation.


RESULTS
DRG's explain 23% of logarithm length of stay. The mathematical model has separated five variables, which are associated with an increase of length of stay (age, number of procedures, physical mobility at entrance, social complexity, intensity of physiotherapy), one associated with a decrease of length of stay (planned admission).


CONCLUSIONS
DRG's, alone, do not describe the dispersion of the length of stay, which is usually used to assess the consumption of resources during an hospitalization. The record of supplementary variables needs further studies, to improve the patients' classification.
Vergnenègre
A
A
Unité d'Information Médicale, Service de Pathologie Respiratoire, Hôpital Universitaire du Cluzeau, Limoges.
Chalé
J J
JJ
Grouchka
C
C
Séné
E
E
Pous
J
J
Bonnaud
F
F
D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D003953:Diagnosis-Related Groups; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D006748:Hospital Departments; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015233:Models, Statistical; D015272:Pulmonary Medicine
Indicateurs explicatifs de la durée de séjour dans un service de pneumologie.