PMID- 11200796
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20010322
LR  - 20151119
IS  - 0393-5264 (Print)
IS  - 0393-5264 (Linking)
VI  - 15 Suppl 3
DP  - 2000
TI  - Headache in the Diagnosis-Related Groups (DRG) era: management and 
      appropriateness of admission.
PG  - 224-9
AB  - Headache is an extremely common disorder which has a marked impact on the 
      utilisation of healthcare resources and constitutes a considerable socio-economic 
      burden. The related costs, both direct and indirect, are especially high in 
      developed countries, since headache predominantly affects an economically-active 
      section of the population. The Diagnosis-Related Groups (DRG) system, a method 
      for reimbursing healthcare structures for patient admissions, was introduced in 
      Italy in 1995. The aim of the system was to control public health expenditure and 
      to promote better distribution of financial resources. Here, we report the 
      results of the application of the DRG system to headache patients admitted to the 
      Department of Neurology of the University of Pavia in 1996 and 1998. The 
      financial analysis revealed high fixed costs (hospital running costs per days of 
      hospitalisation); by contrast, the impact of the variable costs (those relating 
      to the direct management of the individual patient, i.e. examinations, 
      therapeutic interventions etc.) was low. It was found that reducing the number of 
      days of hospitalisation increases the hospital's income and reduces the mean loss 
      incurred in each DRG. It is therefore suggested that a complete approach to the 
      management of headache must include educational programmes for patients and 
      general practitioners, and that access to headache centres and to hospital care 
      should be restricted to cases of acute, severe headache, or recurrent, chronic 
      headache with/without drug abuse or dependence.
FAU - Sances, G
AU  - Sances G
AD  - University Centre for Adaptive Disorders and Headache, University of Pavia, IRCCS 
      C. Mondino Institute of Neurology, Via Palestro 3, 27100 Pavia, Italy.
FAU - Sandrini, G
AU  - Sandrini G
FAU - Costa, A
AU  - Costa A
FAU - Antonaci, F
AU  - Antonaci F
FAU - Citterio, A
AU  - Citterio A
FAU - Nappi, G
AU  - Nappi G
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PL  - Italy
TA  - Funct Neurol
JT  - Functional neurology
JID - 8707746
SB  - IM
MH  - Costs and Cost Analysis
MH  - Day Care, Medical/economics
MH  - *Diagnosis-Related Groups
MH  - *Disease Management
MH  - Headache/*economics/*therapy
MH  - Hospitalization
MH  - Humans
MH  - Italy
EDAT- 2001/02/24 12:00
MHDA- 2001/03/27 10:01
CRDT- 2001/02/24 12:00
PHST- 2001/02/24 12:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2001/03/27 10:01 [medline]
PHST- 2001/02/24 12:00 [entrez]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Funct Neurol. 2000;15 Suppl 3:224-9.