Variability of nursing care by APR-DRG and by severity of illness in a sample of nine Belgian hospitals.

Background: As soon as Diagnosis related Groups (DRG) were introduced in many hospital financing systems, most nursing research revealed that DRG were not very homogeneous with regard to nursing care. However, few studies are based on All Patient refined Diagnosis related Groups (APR-DRGs) and few of them use recent data. Objectives of this study are: (1) to evaluate if nursing activity is homogeneous by APR-DRG and by severity of illness (SOI) (2) to evaluate the outlier's rate associated with the nursing activity and (3) to compare nursing cost homogeneity per DRG and SOI.

Development and validation of nursing resource weights for the Belgian Nursing Minimum Dataset in general hospitals: a Delphi questionnaire survey approach.

Background: Internationally, nursing is not well represented in hospital financing systems. In Belgium a nursing weight system exists to adjust budget allocation for differences in nurse staffing requirements, but there is a need for revision. Arguments include the availability of a nursing minimum dataset and the adverse consequences of the current historically based nursing weight system.

Adjusting for nursing care case mix in hospital reimbursement: a review of international practice.

The purpose of this study was to examine and review the different ways in which nursing care can be accounted for in a general hospital reimbursement system. The study is based on a literature review and a survey of international experts. It provides a typology of nursing care adjustment methods, using current and past practices of 14 Western countries as key examples.

Revision of the Belgian Nursing Minimum Dataset: From data to information.

The Ministry of Public Health commissioned a research project to the Catholic University of Leuven and the University Hospital of Liège to revise the Belgian Nursing Minimum Dataset (B-NMDS). The study started in 2000 and will end with the implementation of the revised B-NMDS in January 2007. The study entailed four major phases.