DRGs in Germany: implement quickly and refine at leisure.

There were and largely continue to be no descriptions of hospital outputs other than the number of inpatients and their average length of stay. Before 1995, the product of both figures determined the daily fee of a hospital. For example, a hospital with 20,000 inpatients having an average LOS of 7 days would be funded for 140,000 patient days. Assuming a total budget of DM70 million, the daily fee would have been DM500 per patient day. There was no relation to the department in which the patient was treated, much less to the diagnoses or the procedures. Every hospital day had the same average price.