The Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS, the National Institute of Health in Italy) provides methodological support for the evaluation and testing of patient classification systems and health services, and for the related evaluation of costs. The system, called the Diagnosis Related Group (DRG), allows the classification of all patients discharged from a hospital into homogeneous groups based on the resources committed to their care.
In this context, the research project It.DRG (development of a new system for measuring and enhancing the products of hospital structures), being carried out in collaboration with the Regions, has the aim of developing and testing new information tools that allow systematic availability of analytical cost data. These data are homogeneous and comparable between hospitals and suitable for determining the cost for each product and allows for the refinement of the system of classification of hospitalizations. Lastly, it defines an Italian remuneration system aimed at improvement of hospital performance.
