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ODG Now Includes Best Practice Hospital Length Of
Stay (LOS)
February
11, 2011 – Encinitas,
CA – Work Loss Data Institute,
publisher of ODG Treatment, including the
Official Disability Guidelines, has incorporated a major new
feature into ODG Treatment for use in managing hospitalization
after major surgeries, injuries, and other in-patient procedures. Detailed
information is provided on Hospital Length of Stay (LOS). Hospital costs
represent a large percentage of workers’ compensation medical costs,
with significant growth in recent years, and this section will help ensure
that those costs are managed effectively.
This
new Hospital LOS
section is included within the Procedure Summary of each body part chapter
in the medical treatment guidelines, and it is cross-referenced under each
surgery that might require an overnight hospital stay, along with the ODG
patient selection criteria for that surgery. From the ODG database, each
surgery is identified using hospital ICD-9 procedure codes and the
following information is provided:
 | Actual data - median LOS (in days)
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| Actual data - mean LOS (in days)
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| Confidence interval for mean LOS (± days)
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| Total discharges in the latest year (cases)
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| ODG Best Practice target (no complications)
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The
guidelines recommend using the median LOS based on type of surgery, or
using the best practice target LOS for cases with no complications. For
prospective management of cases, median is a better choice than mean (or
average) because it represents the mid-point, at which half of the cases
are less, and half are more. For retrospective benchmarking of a series of
cases, mean may be a better choice because of the effect of outliers on
the average length of stay.
The
2011 release in the ODG product line includes the 16th edition of Official
Disability Guidelines (return-to-work guidelines) integrated with the
9th edition of ODG Treatment (medical treatment and utilization
review guidelines). Together they provide the most up to date
evidence-based medical treatment and disability duration guidelines to
improve as well as benchmark outcomes in workers' compensation and
non-occupational disability. ODG 2011 is based on an aggregate of
over 10 million cases, including CDC and OSHA, referred to as the
"most direct form of evidence that can be offered in court"
under the Federal Rules of Evidence, plus over two million medical records
from actual workers’ compensation and disability claims.
For
more information about ODG, or to order ODG, go to www.worklossdata.com
or contact Work Loss Data Institute, publisher of the ODG product line.
WLDI is an independent database development company focused on workplace
health and productivity, based in Encinitas, CA.
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