The Medical journal of Australia
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Med. J. Aust.
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To examine the frequency of deaths in low-mortality diagnosis-related groups (LM-DRGs) and the patient and hospital characteristics associated with them. ⋯ The use of the LM-DRG indicator requires further investigation to test its validity. LM-DRG deaths are infrequent, making it difficult to identify temporal changes and outlier hospitals. Patient characteristics unrelated to quality of care increase the likelihood of death among LM-DRG patients. The SMR analysis showed that failure to adjust for these characteristics may result in unfair and inaccurate identification of outlier hospitals. The increased risk of death associated with interhospital transfer patients and low-volume hospitals requires further investigation.