Dissertation Information for Valerie WatzlafNAME:
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SCHOOL: ADVISORS: COMMITTEE MEMBERS: MPACT Status: Incomplete - Not_Inspected Title: Infections and the cost of hospitalization in the elderly Abstract: In the Good Health Study non-institutionalized ambulatory elderly individuals were followed to determine the incidence rates, organisms, patterns of transmission and outcomes of clinical infections. In order to further examine patient outcome in relation to cost, length of stay and reimbursement, Good Health Study patient hospitalizations were examined in relation to type of diagnoses and procedures, diagnostic related group (DRG), and infections. The investigator reabstracted the medical record, recoded the diagnoses and procedures and computed a new DRG for each of the hospitalizations. Comparisons of the reabstracted data and the original hospital data were made. For 165 hospitalizations, the investigator and hospital agreed on only 62 percent of all principal diagnostic codes, 28 percent of secondary diagnostic codes, 71 percent of procedure codes and 76 percent of all DRG categories. The investigator found 93 infections in 165 hospitalizations (56%) compared to 67 (41%) for the hospital. These differences demonstrate that the data recorded in the hospital indices and Medicare statistics may not accurately reflect the overall health status of the patient hospitalization. |
MPACT Scores for Valerie WatzlafA = 0 Advisors and Advisees Graph |