AHIMA RHIT (Registered Health Information Technician) — All Questions
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A hospital discharged 500 patients during the month, and 15 of those patients died before discharge. The gross death (mortality) rate for the month is:
- a.1.5%
- b.3%✓
- c.5%
- d.30%
Gross death rate = (number of inpatient deaths ÷ number of discharges, including deaths) × 100. Here 15 ÷ 500 = 0.03, or 3%. The gross death rate counts all inpatient deaths, whereas the net death rate excludes deaths occurring within 48 hours of admission. Accurate rate computation is a core HIM statistics skill.
The case-mix index (CMI) for a hospital is calculated by:
- a.Summing the MS-DRG relative weights for all discharges and dividing by the number of discharges✓
- b.Dividing total charges by the number of patient days
- c.Counting the number of CCs and MCCs coded
- d.Averaging the length of stay across all patients
CMI is the average MS-DRG relative weight: sum the relative weights of all discharged cases and divide by the number of discharges. A higher CMI indicates a more resource-intensive, higher-severity patient population and generally higher reimbursement. CMI is used to monitor coding, documentation, and the financial profile of the patient mix.
An HIM analyst wants to display how the hospital's surgical-site infection rate changed month-to-month over a one-year period. The most appropriate graph is a:
- a.Pie chart
- b.Line graph✓
- c.Bar chart of a single total
- d.Frequency histogram of patient ages
A line graph is the best choice for showing a trend of a variable over time, because the connected points make increases and decreases across months easy to see. A pie chart shows parts of a whole at one point in time, and a histogram shows the distribution of a continuous variable. Matching the display to the message is a key data-presentation competency.
During the month, 300 patients were discharged and the total length of stay (discharge days) for all of them was 1,200 days. The average length of stay (ALOS) is:
- a.3 days
- b.4 days✓
- c.5 days
- d.12 days
ALOS = total length of stay (discharge days) ÷ number of discharges = 1,200 ÷ 300 = 4 days. Note that ALOS uses discharges, not admissions, and the median LOS may be reported instead when outliers skew the mean. Length-of-stay statistics support utilization review and benchmarking.