Effect of diagnosis related groups implementation on the intensive care unit of a Swiss tertiary hospital: a cohort study

Table 2 The length of stay increased together with the clinical severity up to a SAPS II score of 69 and then decreases for even higher SPAS II scores

Year of admission	SAPS strata 1 to 7 (SAPS ≤69)		SAPS strata 8 to 11 (SAPS > 69)
	Correlation coefficient (r_s)	Independent correlation with 2013, P value ¹	Correlation coefficient (r_s)	Independent correlation with 2013, P value ¹
All	0.39 **		−0.30 **
2009	0.28 **	< 0.05 ²	−0.37 **	NS
2010	0.43 **	NS	−0.31 **	NS
2011	0.42 **	NS	−0.39 **	NS
2012	0.42 **	NS	−0.21 **	NS
2013	0.42 **		−0.30 **

Patients were stratified by the year of admission and the clinical severity at admission (SAPS II score ≤ 69, SAPS II score > 69). The correlation of the SAPS II score and ICU LOS was considered significant if the P value was < 0.05 (*) using Spearman’s rank correlation. The correlation in 2013 was considered significantly affected by DRG if the independent correlation with the pre-DRG years was above 1.96 using Fisher’s z transformation
NS nonsignificant
**P value < 0.01
¹The independent correlation with 2013 was calculated using Fisher’s z transformation. A P value < 0.05 meaning a significant difference between the correlations (the null hypothesis of equal correlation being rejected)
²The relationship between the SAPS and the LOS is significantly stronger in 2013 (r = 0.419) than in 2009 (r = 0.275)

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