eurodrg:
diagnosis-related groups in europe: towards efficiency and quality
EURODRG:
DIAGNOSIS-RELATED GROUPS IN EUROPE: TOWARDS EFFICIENCY AND QUALITY
Contact:
Zeynep Or (Irdes)Project implementation period: janvier 2009 - décembre 2011
Payment mechanisms represent one of the fundamental building blocks of any health system, introducing powerful incentives for actors in the system and fierce technical design complexities. Inpatient case payments mainly referred to as Diagnose Related Groups (DRGs), are nowadays used as a payment mechanism with ambitious aims: they seek to reimburse providers fairly for the work
they undertake, but intend to encourage efficient delivery and to discourage the provision of unnecessary
services and thereby target to overcome some of the drawbacks of more traditional hospital reimbursement.
A case payment system that fulfils these hopes requires carefully balanced incentives as well as
a methodologically sound system. Especially, DRGs need to accurately reflect the resources and costs
of treating a given patient.
The EuroDRG project scrutinises these challenges. Part one concentrates on the complexities
of case payments
for hospitals in general. Special emphasis is put on identifying those factors, which are crucial for:
- (1) calculating adequate case payments,
- (2) examining hospital efficiency within countries and across Europe fairly,
- (3) study the relationship between costs and the quality of care provided in hospitals.
The project uses comparative analyses of DRG systems across 10 European countries embedded in various types
of health systems (Austria, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the UK).
The second part of the project seeks to identify pan-European issues in hospital case payment and includes conducting efficiency analysis across European countries, establishing a European hospital benchmarking club as well as identifying
those systemic factors, which will be crucial for successful policy design in a slowly emerging pan-European hospital market.
The EuroDRG project is funded under the 7th EU Framework Programme. It will run from January 2009 until December 2011.
The project coordination will be assured by Prof. Reinhard Busse, Technische Universität Berlin.
