AHCPR announces latest release of inpatient data
The Agency for Health Care Policy and Research has published its Nationwide Inpatient Sample Release 3, containing 1994 data on hospital inpatient care, conditions, services and costs. Developed as part of AHCPR’s Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP-3), the publication consists of 6.4 million patient records from a geographically dispersed sample of 904 community hospitals in 17 states.
Releases 1, 2, and 3 together form the largest, most powerful source of discharge-level information for hospital inpatients, regardless of payer, in the United States. The document, which consists of six CD-ROMs, contains information on more than 100 variables, including patient demographic characteristics, total patient charges, median patient income, diagnoses and procedures, and area of residence.
Data from previous releases have been used to compare services of various types of payers, to assess treatment variations, to prioritize strategies for product development, and to determine the costs of treating specific conditions.The hospital identifiers allow users to obtain detailed information on individual hospitals by linking the data with the American Hospital Association’s Survey of Hospitals. More than 200 organizations are now using the data.
The data are available from the National Technical Information Service (NTIS publication # PB 97-500433), 5285 Port Royal Road, Springfield, VA 22161. Telephone: (703) 487-4650. The set of six CD-ROMs comes in ASCII format and sells for $160. The set includes documentation in Adobe Acrobat (a Windows reader is provided) and NIS tools (to assist SAS and SPSS users). Release 1, which presents data for 1988-92, is available on a set of 26 CD-ROMS at a cost of $300. Release 2, covering 1993, is available on six CD-ROMS and costs $160.
For more information, call (301) 594-1400; fax (301) 594-2166; or e-mail [email protected]. gov.
You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
- Award-winning Medical Content
- Latest Advances & Development in Medicine
- Unbiased Content