Hideo Yasunaga

Japan established an original case-mix classification system in 2002, so called Diagnosis Procedure Combination (DPC). The main purposes of introducing the DPC system are providing transparency of hospital performance as well as implementing an electronic billing system. Researchers can utilize the DPC data to identify, track, and analyze national trends in health care utilization, access, quality, outcomes, and costs. The unique advantage of the DPC data is the inclusion of detailed process dat

In this large nationwide cohort of patients with early-stage gastric cancer, laparoscopic gastrectomy was associated with a statistically significant but slight reduction in postoperative length of stay, but no differences between laparoscopic gastrectomy and open gastrectomy were detected in terms of early mortality and morbidity.

In 2003, a lump-sum payment system based on Diagnosis Procedure Combinations (DPC) was introduced to 82 specific function hospitals in Japan. While the US DRG/PPS system is a "per case payment" system, the DPC based payment system adopts a "per day payment." It is generally believed that the Japanese system provides as much of an incentive as the DRG/PPS system to shorten the average length of stay (LOS). We performed an empirical analysis of the effect of LOS shortening on hospital revenue and

Unlike previous studies in the USA, in the present national Japanese cohort of patients undergoing surgery for gastrointestinal cancer, those who were either underweight or overweight had more postoperative complications and greater perioperative costs than those of normal weight.

The Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare, Japan, launched the Diagnosis Procedure Combination system in 2002. Detailed information on the Diagnosis Procedure Combination data was reported in <i>Annals of Clinical Epidemiology</i> in 2019. In this report, I provide updated information on the Diagnosis Procedure Combination. The data included the discharge abstracts and administrative claims data for each inpatient. Several entities (including the Ministry, academic groups, and private companies

Living in a low-density area was associated with an independent risk of delay in ambulance response, and a low survival rate in cases of OHCA. Distribution of EMS centers according to population size may lead to inequality in health outcomes between urban and rural areas.

Well-staffed hospitals confer a benefit for cancer surgical patients regarding reduced FTR, irrespective of hospital volume. These results suggest that consolidation of surgical centers linked with migration of medical professionals may improve the quality of cancer surgical management.