Age and Ageing, Vol 28, 187-192, Copyright © 1999 by British Geriatrics Society
J Urquhart, DC Kennie, PS Murdoch, RG Smith and I Lennox
OBJECTIVE: to create a casemix measure with a limited number of categories
which discriminate in terms of resource use and will assist in the
development of a currency for contracting for the provision of health care.
DESIGN: nursing staff completed a questionnaire providing clinical data and
also gave estimates of relative patient resource use; ward-based costs were
collected from appropriate unit managers. SETTING: National Health Service
continuing-care wards in 50 Scottish hospitals. SUBJECTS: 2783 long-stay
patients aged 65 years and over. RESULTS: inter-rater reliability was
assessed using 1402 patients; percentage agreement between raters for
individual variables varied from 68% for feeding to 97% for clinically
complex treatments. Nursing costs gave 62% agreement given categories of
high, medium and low. The Scottish health service resource utilization
groups (SHRUG) measure was developed using 606 cases, and 67% consistency
was achieved for the five categories. The relative weights for the SHRUG
categories ranged from 0.56 to 1.41. The five categories explain 35% of
variance in costs. CONCLUSIONS: the five SHRUG casemix categories show good
discrimination in terms of costs. The SHRUG measure compares favourably
with diagnosis-related groups in the acute sector and with other casemix
instruments for long-term care previously piloted in the UK. SHRUG is a
useful measurement instrument in assessing the resource needs of elderly
people in long-term care.
ARTICLES
Costing for long-term care: the development of Scottish health service resource utilization groups as a casemix instrument
Information and Statistics Division, Trinity Park House, Edinburgh, UK.
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