The subject here is the limited comparison of two potential prototype evaluation systems at University Hospital in London, Ontario. The analysis focuses on the categorization of in-patients within particular subspecialties (general surgery and cardiology) on the basis of total hours of care provided by diagnostic and treatment staff (the resource consumption measure), and average nursing acuity or discharge nursing workload (the category descriptors). A comparison is also made with Case Mix Group (CMG) categories within these subspecialties, taking into account that CMGs are a factor evaluation system and are based on clinical characteristics.
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Goodness of fit is measured by the homogeneity of resource consumption for patients within a category (i.e. smallness of residual variation), and the differences in resource consumption among categories (i.e. explained variation).
