Supplemental Tables - Measure Definitions

These definitions refer to the measures found in the accompanying tables.

TOTAL CASES (Before Exclusions)

The total number of patients before exclusions who were hospitalized. Note that for individual analysis on mortality, length of stay, and charges, the total number of cases varies due to exclusion criteria. This count includes all discharges during 1998 for this DRG. This figure does not correspond to the number of "Cases" listed for each facility in the public report. The number of "Cases" listed in the public report is the number of "Cases in the Mortality Analysis" (as described below). For detailed information, please refer to the 1998 Hospital Performance Report Technical Notes.

 

AGE 65 AND OVER (%)

The percentage of total cases of patients aged 65 and over that were hospitalized.

MORTALITY

Cases in Mortality Analysis

The number of cases after exclusions in the mortality analysis. For detailed information, please refer to the 1998 Hospital Performance Report Technical Notes.

Number of Actual Deaths

The number of patients who died during hospitalization.

Number of Expected Deaths

The number of patients who were expected to die during the hospitalization after adjusting for the risk of the patient.

p-Value

The p-value gives an idea of how likely it is to have observed a number of deaths as extreme (or more extreme) as what was actually observed. In this report a p-value of 0.05 or less is used to determine statistical significance. For detailed information, please refer to the 1998 Hospital Performance Report Technical Notes.

Average ASG

The Admission Severity Group (ASG) score measures the degree of patient risk at the beginning of their hospital stay. Patients are classified into one of five categories, ranging from 0-4:

    1. (no risk of clinical instability)
    2. (minimum risk of clinical instability)
    3. (moderate risk of clinical instability)
    4. (severe risk of clinical instability)
    5. (maximum risk of clinical instability)

The numbers in this column are averages of the Admission Severity Group scores.

 

LENGTH OF STAY

Risk-Adjusted Length of Stay

This is the average length of hospital stay that has been adjusted to take patient risk into account. For detailed description of the calculation, please refer to the 1998 Hospital Performance Report Technical Notes.

 

CHARGES

Trimmed Average Charge ($)

This is the average charge (not including professional fees) that has been regionally adjusted. For detailed description of the calculation, please refer to the 1998 Hospital Performance Report Technical Notes.