[Do the New German OPS codes map the relevant therapeutic activities in psychiatric clinics?]

Abstract

Objective: Actual codes for operations and procedures (OPS) in psychiatry and psychosomatics should map cost separating therapeutic activities so far defined in Germany by the normative specifications of the psychiatry staff enactment (PsychPV). OPS codes should also allow re-estimating underlying therapy times.

Method: Therapeutic activities of the PsychPV fulfilling the minimal criteria of the OPS definition were classified as multiples of a therapeutic 25 minute unit.

Results: Therapeutic activities of the PsychPV are mapped to OPS complex codes in a variable degree (psychiatrists 35 %, psychologists 42 %, nurses 43 %, special therapists 59 %).

Conclusion: Actual OPS codes are inappropriate for identifying relevant cost-separating factors in the therapy of psychiatric in-patients. They cannot assure in their actual form the standards given by the PsychPV and need substantial revision.