AHRQ Will Show Reporters How to Use its New Web Software to Get Hospital Data Online

News Advisory: April 26, 2000

Dr. Anne Elixhauser of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), will be available from 9:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Thursday, May 4, to explain the use and operation of its online HCUPnet software to interested members of the media. HCUPnet is a Web-based, interactive, service that instantly provides statistical answers to menu-driven questions about hospital care use, outcomes and charges in the United States as a whole and in 10 states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, South Carolina, and Washington.

HCUPnet can be used, for example:

• To find the total number of in-hospital deaths from colon cancer in men and women in California rural and urban hospitals and/or in any of the nine other states.
• To find the mean charges, nationally, for peripheral vascular bypass surgery, by patient age group, hospital bed size, and hospital type and location.
• To track the average length of stay for Cesarean section in U.S. hospitals between 1993 and 1997.
• To learn what percentage of hospitalized children are covered by Medicaid or are uninsured nationally or within any of the 10 states.

You can also obtain principal diagnosis- and principal procedure-related statistics on in-hospital deaths, live discharges, mean hospital charges, patients' length of stay and other issues by categories such as patient age group, sex, expected primary payer, and hospital type, location, and size.

Select http://hcupnet.ahrq.gov/ for more information and to try out HCUPnet. Dr. Elixhauser will take callers through HCUPnet's use step-by-step and will answer their questions. To schedule your 15-minute time block with Dr. Elixhauser on Thursday, May 4 (9:30-12), call Farah Englert at (301) 427-1865.

For additional information, contact AHRQ Public Affairs Division, (301) 427-1364: Farah Englert, (301) 427-1865 (FEnglert@ahrq.gov).

Internet Citation:

AHRQ Will Show Reporters How to Use its New Web Software to Get Hospital Data Online. News Advisory, April 26, 2000. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/news/press/pr2000/HCUPadv.htm