Defining an episode of care: A study of five Case Types

Abstract

This is the first study in Australia to test definitions of various types of episodes of care. The definitions reported here are those used in the 1996 National Sub-Acuteand Non-Acute Patient (SNAP) Casemix Classification Study.The study collected data on a total of 683 patients at 10 hospitals and two communityhealth services providing a range of rehabilitation, aged care and community careservices. The kappa statistic (k) was used to determine the significance of the level ofagreement between raters. The value of kappa was 0.838 with a 95per cent confidence interval of 0.801 to 0.975.The results of this study are encouraging and support the use of the five Case Types? Palliative Care, Rehabilitation, Psychogeriatric, Geriatric Evaluation and Management, and Maintenance Care. All five Case Types proved to have good inter-raterreliability, there was a good fit for most patients, and staff found the definitionseasy to use.