Evaluation of economic burden of disease in postoperative pneumonia patients based on DRG payment method

OBJECTIVE To explore the impact of postoperative pneumonia (POP) on healthcare resource consumption based on Diagnosis Related Groups (DRG)， providing a basis for precise prevention and control of POP. METHODS Patients discharged after surgery from Suining Central Hospital between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31， 2024， were selected as the study subjects， including 396 cases in the POP group and 34 557 cases in the non-POP group. The basic conditions and resource consumption of the two groups were compared， and stratified analysis was conducted according to DRG disease groups to compare the differences in average length of hospital stay and average hospitalization expenses between the two groups. RESULTS The overall incidence rate of POP was 1.13%. Statistically significant differences were observed between the POP and non-POP groups in terms of age， admission method and surgical duration (P＜ 0.05). 89.39% of POP cases occurred within 7 days after surgery. the average length of hospital stay and average hospitalization expenses of the POP group were 3.80 times and 5.49 times those of the non-POP group， respectively. The various expenses， time consumption index and expense consumption index were all higher in the POP group than in the non-POP group (P＜ 0.05). Patients in the POP group were mainly distributed in DRG groups related to gastroesophageal duodenal surgery， intracranial or craniotomy surgery and thoracic surgery. Except for the average length of hospital stay and average hospitalization expenses in the group 163 and the average length of hospital stay in the group 164， which showed no statistical differences， the average length of hospital stay and average hospitalization expenses in all other groups showed statistically significant differences (P＜ 0.05). CONCLUSIONS POP contributes to increased healthcare resource consumption. Based on DRG， the differences in resource consumption can be clarified. DRG related to gastroesophageal duodenal surgery， intracranial or craniotomy surgery， etc. ， are the key focuses for the prevention and control of POP.