Head-to-head comparison of fee-for-service and diagnosis  related groups in two tertiary referral hospitals in Switzerland: an observational  study

Noemi Weissenberger; Désirée Thommen; Philipp Schuetz; Beat Mueller; Christoph Reemts; Thomas Holler; Juerg A Schifferli; Martin Gerber; Balthasar L Hug

doi:10.4414/smw.2013.13790

Original article

Vol. 143 No. 1920 (2013)

Head-to-head comparison of fee-for-service and diagnosis related groups in two tertiary referral hospitals in Switzerland: an observational study

Noemi Weissenberger
Désirée Thommen
Philipp Schuetz
Beat Mueller
Christoph Reemts
Thomas Holler
Juerg A Schifferli
Martin Gerber
Balthasar L Hug

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4414/smw.2013.13790
Cite this as:: Swiss Med Wkly. 2013;143:w13790
Published: 05.05.2013

Summary

BACKGROUND: Reimbursement for inpatients in Switzerland differed among states until 2012. Some hospitals used diagnosis related groups (DRG) and others used fee-for-service (FFS). We compared length of hospital stay (LOS), patient satisfaction and quality of life between the two systems before a nation-wide implementation of DRG.

METHODS: In a prospective, two-centre observational cohort study, we identified all patients with a main diagnosis of either community-acquired pneumonia, exacerbation of chronic pulmonary obstructive disease, acute heart failure or hip fracture from January to June 2011 and performed a systematic questionnaire survey 2–4 months after hospital discharge.

RESULTS: Of 1,093 inpatients, 450 were included. Mean age was 71.1 (±SD 19.5) years (48% male). Patients in the FFS hospital were older (mean age 74.8 vs. 65.2 years; p <0.001) and suffered from more co-morbidities. Mean LOS was 9 days and shorter in the all-patient DRG (AP-DRG) hospital (unadjusted mean 8.2 vs. 9.5 days, p = 0.04). After multivariate adjustment, no significant difference in LOS was found (p = 0.24). More patients from the FFS hospital were re-hospitalised for any reason (35% vs. 17.5%; p = 0.01), re-admitted to acute-care institutions (11.7% vs. 5.2%; p = 0.014), not satisfied with the discharge process (15.3% vs. 9.7%; p = 0.02), showed problems with self-care (93.8% vs. 88%; p = 0.03) and usual activities (79.3% vs. 76%; p = 0.02).

DISCUSSION: This study suggested that the AP-DRG hospital showed higher patient satisfaction regarding discharge, lower re-hospitalisation rates and shorter LOS partly explained by a lower burden of co-morbidities and disease severity. This study needs validation in a larger cohort of patients and at multiple time points.

References

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How to Cite

1.

Weissenberger N, Thommen D, Schuetz P, Mueller B, Reemts C, Holler T, Schifferli J, Gerber M, Hug B. Head-to-head comparison of fee-for-service and diagnosis related groups in two tertiary referral hospitals in Switzerland: an observational study. Swiss Med Wkly [Internet]. 2013 May 5 [cited 2024 Nov. 24];143(1920):w13790. Available from: https://smw.ch/index.php/smw/article/view/1682

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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<< < 1 2 3

[1] Services CfMaM. National Health Expenditures 2010 Highlights. 2012.

[2] Office SFS. Health care costs and financing in 2010. 2012.

[3] Covinsky KE, Pierluissi E, Johnston CB. Hospitalization-associated disability: “She was probably able to ambulate, but I’m not sure”. JAMA. 2011;306(16):1782–93.

[4] Carratala J, Fernandez-Sabe N, Ortega L, Castellsague X, Roson B, Dorca J, et al. Outpatient care compared with hospitalization for community-acquired pneumonia: a randomized trial in low-risk patients. Ann Intern Med. 2005;142(3):165–72.

[5] Donaldson C, Magnussen J. DRGs: the road to hospital efficiency. Health Policy. 1992;21(1):47–64.

[6] Davis C, Rhodes DJ. The impact of DRGs on the cost and quality of health care in the United States. Health Policy. 1988;9(2):117–31.

[7] Rosenthal MB. Beyond pay for performance – emerging models of provider-payment reform. N Engl J Med. 2008;359(12):1197–200.

[8] Rosenthal MB. What works in market-oriented health policy? N Engl J Med. 2009;360(21):2157–60.

[9] Fischer, Wolfram. Die DRG Familie. 2008. Available at: http://www.fischer-zim.ch.

[10] Pretto M, Spirig R, Kaelin R, Muri-John V, Kressig RW, Suhm N. Outcomes of elderly hip fracture patients in the Swiss healthcare system: A survey prior to the implementation of DRGs and prior to the implementation ofa Geriatric Fracture Centre. Swiss Med Wkly. 2010;140:w13086.

[11] Schuetz P, Albrich WC, Suter I, Hug BL, Christ-Crain M, Holler T, et al. Quality of care delivered by fee-for-service and DRG hospitals in Switzerland in patients with community-acquired pneumonia. Swiss Med Wkly. 2011;141:w13228.

[12] Shaw JW, Johnson JA, Coons SJ. US valuation of the EQ-5D health states: development and testing of the D1 valuation model. Med Care. 2005;43(3):203–20.

[13] Schrag A, Selai C, Jahanshahi M, Quinn NP. The EQ-5D – a generic quality of life measure-is a useful instrument to measure quality of life in patients with Parkinson’s disease. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2000;69(1):67–73.

[14] Dodd S, Bassi A, Bodger K, Williamson P. A comparison of multivariable regression models to analyse cost data. J Eval Clin Pract. 2006;12(1):76–86.

[15] Grundlageninformationen zur Vergütung mit APDRG-Fallpauschalen. Available at: http://www.zmt.ch/stationaere_tarife/stationaere_tarife_apdrg/stationaere_tarife_apdrg_grundlageninformationen.htm.

[16] Busato A, von Below G. The implementation of DRG-based hospital reimbursement in Switzerland: A population-based perspective. Health Res Policy Syst. 2010;8:31.