Severity Adjustment

What is severity adjustment?
 
Severity adjustment systems (such as the APR-DRG), use a similar structure to Medicare's severity diagnosis related groups (MS-DRG), having one global category—the DRG. However, a severity adjustment system further adjusts the data into four subclass levels for ROM (Risk of Mortality), and another four subclass levels for SOI (Severity of Illness). Both subclasses exist through a numbered ranking system:

• 1: Minor
• 2: Moderate
• 3: Major
• 4: Extreme
   
  What is a mortality index ?
   
  A mortality index is the percent of expected deaths over the percent of observed deaths. 
   
  What is the goal for a mortality index ?
   
  Equal or less than 1.00
  
  
  How can SOI, ROM and Mortality Index improve ?
  
  
  Good documentation helps capture the true severity of illness of patients and accurately represent their codified data