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The term Diagnosis-related Group (DRG) refers to a classification system used to assess hospital services with the aim of a better management of health care costs and improving performance. The DRG system focuses on the utilization of resources, and is not concerned with the specific type of care provided to the patient. This system highlights any diseconomies and eventual critical aspects of the hospital system. This article, starting from the history of heath care financing in Italy and pointing out the difficulty to define the "quality" of health care services, describes the variables used to evaluate correctly hospital performance based on the DRG system. These include Average Length of Stay, Average Daily Patient Load, Comparative Performance Index, and Case Mix Index.

The term Diagnosis-related Group (DRG) refers to a classification system used to assess hospital services with the aim of a better management of health care costs and improving performance. The DRG system focuses on the utilization of resources, and is not concerned with the specific type of care provided to the patient. This system highlights any diseconomies and eventual critical aspects of the hospital system. This article, starting from the history of heath care financing in Italy and pointing out the difficulty to define the "quality" of health care services, describes the variables used to evaluate correctly hospital performance based on the DRG system. These include Average Length of Stay, Average Daily Patient Load, Comparative Performance Index, and Case Mix Index.

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a form of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) characterized by damage of large bowel mucosa and frequent extra-intestinal autoimmune comorbidities. The role played in IBD pathogenesis by molecular chaperones known to interact with components of the immune system involved in inflammation is unclear. We previously demonstrated that mucosal Hsp60 decreases in UC patients treated with conventional therapies (mesalazine, probiotics), suggesting that this chaperonin could be a reliable biomarker useful for monitoring response to treatment, and that it might play a role in pathogenesis. In the present work we investigated three other heat shock protein/molecular chaperones: Hsp10, Hsp70, and Hsp90. We found that the levels of these proteins are increased in UC patients at the time of diagnosis and decrease after therapy, supporting the notion that these proteins deserve attention in the study of the mechanisms that promote the development and maintenance of IBD, and as biomarkers of this disease (e.g., to monitor response to treatment at the histological level).

Background: To evaluate the emotional state of pregnant women undergoing computerised cardiotocography (cCTG)., Methods: A questionnaire including questions about socio-demographic background, personal obstetric history and physician-patient relationship was given to 204 pregnant women about to undergo cCTG. The Edinburgh Post-natal Depression Scale (EPDS) was used to assess patients' mood state before CTG, while the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) was used to evaluate anxiety levels before and after this examination., Results: Mean STAI T-anxiety score did not differ before and after CTG (p=0.38), but higher levels of basal anxiety were found in women who had undergone only occasional prenatal controls (p=0.04), as well as smokers (p=0.01), and women preferring a vaginal delivery (p=0.01). The mean STAI S-anxiety score of 43.6+/-4.03 before the cardiotographic examination, increased to 45.2+/-5.4 after this test with a statistically significant difference (p=0.0001). This increase was found to be correlated with the presence of obstetric complications during the current pregnancy (p=0.036) and a lower number of fetal active movements (p=0.029). Based on the EPDS, 22 patients (14.1%) were found to be depressed, but this condition was not correlated with significant increases in anxiety levels., Conclusions: Anxiety levels in pregnant women who undergo routine CTG are increased, and this emotional reaction seems to be influenced by the perception of fetal movement during the examination, and is more evident in pregnancies affected by obstetric complications.