New Information from AHRQ: March 8, 2001
The U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has published a free new catalog, Databases and Related Resources from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP). The HCUP project, a federal-state-private industry partnership to build a standardized, multi-state health data system for use in health care research and analysis, currently encompasses 22 state-specific hospital inpatient databases, 9 state-specific ambulatory surgery databases, and the Nationwide Inpatient Sample. This latter consists of a stratified probability sample drawn from the state inpatient databases. HCUP databases contain a core set of clinical and nonclinical information on all patients, regardless of whether their care was paid for by private insurance, Medicare, or Medicaid, or if they had no health insurance. Researchers and analysts use HCUP data to examine hospital utilization, access, charges, quality and outcomes, and to identify, track, analyze and compare trends at the national, regional and state levels.
The catalog also describes HCUPnet, an interactive service on AHRQ's Web site for instantly identifying and comparing hospital inpatient statistics at the national, regional and state levels. Other featured resources include AHRQ software tools for hospital quality improvement and research purposes and recent statistical reports and studies based on HCUP data.
To obtain Databases and Related Resources from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP), contact the AHRQ Publications Clearinghouse, P.O. Box 8547, Silver Spring, MD 20907; phone: 800-358-9295.
For additional information, please contact AHRQ Public Affairs, (301) 427-1364: Bob Isquith, (301) 427-1539 (RIsquith@ahrq.gov).
Internet Citation:
AHRQ Offers Catalog of Its State and National Hospital Databases. Press Release, March 8, 2001. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/news/press/pr2001/hcupcatpr.htm
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