Hospital costs, resource characteristics, and the dynamics of death for general surgery patients.

The world of health care finance and quality assessment is undergoing rapid change. We analyzed a large group of general surgical patients who died regarding hospital resource consumption. General surgical patients who died generated much greater resource consumption than survivors per DRG; increasing hospital LOS for general surgical patients who died was associated with increasing financial risk under DRGs. Patients who died after non-emergency admission generated similar financial risk to patients who died after emergency admission. General surgical patients who died who were referred from another clinical service generated, on average, similar resource consumption to non-referred patients who died. The results of this study support those of previous studies suggesting the payment inequities of DRGs for general surgical patients who die and suggest that attention should be directed at improving the DRG hospital payment system for these patients.