What is CASE MIX INDEX? What does CASE MIX INDEX mean? CASE MIX INDEX meaning - CASE MIX INDEX definition - CASE MIX INDEX explanation

What is CASE MIX INDEX? What does CASE MIX INDEX mean? CASE MIX INDEX meaning - CASE MIX INDEX definition - CASE MIX INDEX explanation.

Case mix index (CMI) is a relative value assigned to a diagnosis-related group of patients in a medical care environment. The CMI value is used in determining the allocation of resources to care for and/or treat the patients in the group.

Patients are classified into groups having the same condition (based on main and secondary diagnosis, procedures, age), complexity (comorbidity) and needs. These groups are known as Diagnosis Related Groups (DRG), or Resource Use Groups (RUG).

Each DRG has a relative average value assigned to it that indicates the amount of resources required to treat patients in the group, as compared to all the other diagnosis-related groups within the system. The relative average value assigned to each group is its CMI.

The CMI of a hospital reflects the diversity, clinical complexity and the needs for resources in the population of all the patients in the hospital.

The CMI value of a hospital can be used to adjust the average cost per patient (or per day) for a given hospital relative to the adjusted average cost for other hospitals by dividing the average cost per patient (or day) by the hospital's calculated CMI. The adjusted average cost per patient would reflect the charges reported for the types of cases treated in that year. If a hospital has a CMI greater than 1.00, their adjusted cost per patient or per day will be lower and conversely if a hospital has a CMI less than 1.00, their adjusted cost will be higher.