The NIS is designed to approximate a 20-percent sample of U.S. community hospitals and contains records for all stays in the sampled hospitals. The 1992 NIS includes hospitals in 11 States. They comprise nearly 30 percent of all hospital discharges. For example, the fourth most frequent DRG overall is DRG 430, Psychoses. A variety of studies can use the information in this publication.
Medical professionals can compare their own practices to a nationwide sample.
Third-party payers and managed care organizations can use this information as a starting point for examining the impact of payment policies and insurance status on practice patterns. Understanding these DRGs can provide insight into a significant proportion of discharges in all insurance-status groups. Investigate differences in the most common DRGs according to patients' insurance status. Compare and contrast resource use among the top five diagnoses for each DRG to discern particularly resource-intensive applications of each DRG that can be targeted for further investigation. Some DRGs comprise diverse conditions with different resource use.