Qualitative evaluation of the supporting system for diagnosis procedure combination code selection.

In Japan, medical staff must select a diagnosis procedure combination (DPC) code for each inpatient upon admission. We report on the development and evaluation of a supporting system for DPC code selection. This system, based on a machine learning method developed by Okamoto et al., makes DPC code suggestions that are derived from medical practice information pertaining to inpatients. The use of the suggestions helps medical staff select an appropriate DPC code for each inpatient. We asked health information management professionals to evaluate the system and to compare the suggested DPC codes with those selected by doctors. They reported that the system was generally useful and that using this system they could find some cases of hospitalized patients whose DPC codes needed correction. However, they also determined the precision of the system needs improvement.