Monitoring low-risk death cases through Beijing-diagnosis related groups for improvement of the medical quality

Objective To explore methods of quickly identifying loopholes in medical quality management and to improve medical quality by means of analyzing low-risk death cases. Methods Two rounds of analysis of 114 low-risk death cases of hospitals in Beijing in 2012 in terms of data quality and medical procedures, in an effort to identify problems and to verify the feasibility and accuracy of the method through interaction with other data. Results Totally 585 760 inpatients were discharged in 2012 from 21 hospitals, of whom 151 193 being low-risk cases. Such cases included 114 low-risk death cases, accounting for 0.019% of the total discharged, and 0.075% of low-risk discharged cases. Analysis of these medical records found 50 cases of problematic diagnosis (43.86%), 45 cases of possible defects in diagnosis and treatment (39.47%), 39 cases of missing items of secondary diagnosis (34.21%), and 28 cases of missing items of surgery/operation (24.56%). Some of the abovementioned cases had overlapping mistakes. Conclusion Analysis of low-risk death cases can help focus among massive data of medical records, problems of diagnostic and therapeutic insufficiency, pinpointing common problems in medical service and improving medical quality and fine management of hospitals. Key words: Hospital management; Diagnosis related groups Beijing version; Low-risk death cases