Patent ID: 8548841

Claim:
A method for computing, in an advisor system, a plurality of supply cost mix index weights (SMI i s) based on supply cost values associated with multiple health care provider systems (HCPs), the method comprising: accessing, from a memory in the advisor system, a supply cost value (SC i ) associated with each patient case data record from among a plurality of patient case data records stored in the memory, wherein for each patient case data record, the SC i represents the cost of supplies associated with the patient case data record, wherein each patient case data record is associated with a health care provider system (HCP) of multiple HCPs, wherein each patient case data record is associated with at least one of a plurality of diagnosis related classification values (DRC i s), and wherein i is an index value corresponding to the number of DRC i s; determining, with a processor in the advisor system, an average supply cost value (AVG-SC i ) associated with each of the DRC i s, each AVG-SC i being an average based on the SC i associated with each of the patient case data records associated with a specific DRC i and based on the number of patient cases (C i ) associated with the specific DRC i ; determining, with the processor in the advisor system, an overall average supply cost value (SC Avg ), wherein the SC Avg is an overall average based on all of the SC i s from all of the plurality of patient case data records and based on the total number of patient case data records across the multiple HCPs; determining, with the processor in the advisor system, a supply mix index weight (SMI i ) associated with each of the plurality of DRC i s, each SMI i being determined by dividing the AVG-SC i associated with a particular DRC i by the determined SC Avg ; and outputting, from the processor in the advisor system, the determined supply mix index weight (SMI i ) associated with each of the plurality of DRC i s to a display device connected to the advisor system.