Naessens et al reported the COMPLEX score as a measure of disease complexity. It correlates with a patient's outcomes, hospital charges and readmission rate. The authors are from the Mayo Clinic.
Body systems:
(1) skin
(2) nervous system including cerebral vessels
(3) eyes
(4) ear, nose, throat, sinuses
(5) respiratory system
(6) gastrointestinal system
(7) pancreatic and hepatibiliary systems
(8) circulatory systems
(9) urinary tract
(10) reproductive system (male genitalia, female)
(11) endocrine system
(12) hematopoietic and reticuloendothelial system
(13) musculoskeletal system including trauma
(14) newborn and birth trauma
(15) other
|
Disease
|
Stage
|
|
none
|
0
|
|
minor with no complications
|
1
|
|
organ-limited with risk of complications
|
2
|
|
systemic or multi-site, poor prognosis
|
3
|
|
death
|
4
|
The COMPLEX score is the number of body systems with one or more conditions at Stage 2 or 3.
Interpretation:
• minimum COMPLEX score: 0
• maximum COMPLEX score: 15
• The higher the COMPLEX score the greater the risk for problems.
Limitations:
• The Stage 2 and Stage 3 conditions are equally weighted. The number of these conditions is capped at 1. This means that multiple serious conditions would be valued the same as one moderate condition. In practice the number of Stage 3 conditions in an organ system is limited.
