Dumb Question... [Archive] - Actuarial Outpost

Frenchie

01-13-2005, 05:10 PM

Okay, this is probably something everyone here knows, but I don't, and I'm lost. What does "hospital discharges" tell us in a report (e.g., a report gives us discharges/1000 for a certain diagnosis)? I am reading stuff that keeps mentioning that, but I'm kinda lost....thanks for any help..

Malik Shabazz

01-13-2005, 05:14 PM

What does "hospital discharges" tell us in a report?That's the icky pus that comes from patients' bedsores. :lol:

I'm sorry. I'm not a health actuary, but it was just too easy to pass up.

thing

01-13-2005, 06:08 PM

Just what it sounds like; how many times a person was let out of a hospital. It gives you a rough idea of what hospital utilization looks like.

Why discharges instead of admits? I dunno. Possibly admits are harder to count.

hopper

01-13-2005, 06:09 PM

Most of time we do not look at discharges/1000. We look at a related stat which is admission/1000. For eaxmple, if you see 5 per 1000, it means that there are about 5 hospital admissions per 1000 insureds per year.

Frenchie

01-14-2005, 08:20 AM

clinteastwood

01-14-2005, 08:43 AM

So when it's broken down by diagnosis, it's giving us an idea of how many people have a certain ailment out of the group we're looking at?

Also, aside from problems w/self reporting, etc., it could show us how healthy one group is compared to another?
Absolutely. Part of the rating process is using factors for each type of admission. If a group has certain utilization patterns for certain diagnoses, it could conceivably rate higher than another group with different utilizations. This is one of the core rating components in health insurance.

Frenchie

01-14-2005, 09:49 AM

Thanks for all the help...anyone familiar with the Dartmouth Atlas and its charts etc?

scooter

01-14-2005, 01:33 PM

Thanks for all the help...anyone familiar with the Dartmouth Atlas and its charts etc?

Somewhat. What is your question?