Case Mix

Case mix is the distribution of patients across diagnostic and procedural groups treated by a hospital or clinic. It has both clinical meaning (what kinds of patients are treated) and operational meaning (resource needs, expected length of stay, expected revenue). For operating room scheduling, case mix means the share of short and long cases across the day, specialty diversity, and emergency distribution. A well-set case mix uses the same resources (room, surgeon) much more efficiently — e.g. one long complex case in the morning, several short cases in the afternoon. In academic literature, Diagnosis-Related Groups (DRGs) tie case mix to reimbursement.