Comparison of discharge diagnoses and inpatient procedures between military and civilian health care systems.
BACKGROUND
Our goal was to compare the demographics and discharge diagnoses between civilian and military health care systems.


METHODS
One year (1997) of data from the Retrospective Case Mix Adjustment System from the Military Health Services System were compared with the most recent (1994) civilian National Hospital Discharge Survey data.


RESULTS
Military and civilian inpatient age (52.5 and 52.9 years), gender (54% and 59% female), and ethnic distributions (military: 71% white, 16% African American, 3% Asian American, 10% other; civilian: 65% white, 12% African American, 2.6% Asian American, 1.2% Native American, 18% unclassified) were similar. There were similar rank orderings of diagnosis-related groupings (Spearman's rank correlation = 0.72) and procedures performed during hospitalization (Spearman's rho = 0.74), although the military inpatients yielded a higher proportion associated with pregnancy and strenuous activity (traumatic joint disorders and hernias) than their civilian counterparts.


CONCLUSIONS
The practice content of military and civilian inpatients appear to be more similar than different.
Jackson
J L
JL
Department of Medicine-EDP, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD, USA.
Cheng
E Y
EY
Jones
D L
DL
Meyer
G
G
D003953:Diagnosis-Related Groups / Q000145:classification / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D019937:Diagnostic Techniques and Procedures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008887:Military Medicine / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008889:Military Personnel / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009017:Morbidity; D010351:Patient Discharge / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011247:Pregnancy; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013812:Therapeutics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology