Survey
description
The National Hospital Discharge Survey (NHDS) is a continuous nationwide
survey of inpatient utilization of short-stay hospitals. Survey data are
abstracted from sampled medical records of inpatients discharged from a
national sample of non-Federal short-stay hospitals.
Data
file description
Separate files are prepared for each annual survey. Each file contains
approximately 200,000 records that have a fixed-length format. Beginning
in 1993, the layout of the public-use files was changed to be compatible
with that of the multiyear files. This was done to allow for easily
concatenating the annual files after 1993 with the multiyear files.
A set of multiyear
files with data for the 1979 to 1997 data years, combined and reformatted
with standard coding of all variables, is also available. Unlike the
single year files, the multiyear files separate records for newborn
infants and non-newborns as distinct data files.
NHDS data on diskettes
are intended as an information source for researchers and other who need
data for detailed diagnostic procedures and diagnosis-related group (DRG)
categories but do not need the record-level detail provided by the
complete public-use data file.
List
of data file variables at a glance
Patient data
Age at date of admission
Sex
Race
Marital status
Expected source of payment (1977-97)
Data of admission (month, day, year). (Admission
month
only for 1993-97 and multiyear files)
Date of discharge (month, day, year) (Omitted on
1993-97 and multiyear files)
Discharge status
Diagnostic and
procedure codes
Diagnostic codes (1970-78: one to five 4-digit
ICDA-8
diagnostic codes: 1979-97; one to seven
5-digit
ICD-9-CM
codes)
Diagnosis-related group (DRG) codes: 1986-97
(Not
on multiyear file.)
Procedure codes (1970-78: zero to three 3-digit
ICDA-8
procedure codes: 1979-97: zero to four
4-digit
ICD-9-CM procedure codes)
Dates of procedures, if procedure codes are not zero
(1979-92:
one to four; month, day year)
This
data item is not available on the 1993-97
files
or on the multiyear file. ICD-9-CM
codes)
Diagnosis-related group (DRG) codes: 1986-97
(Not
on multiyear file.)
Procedure codes (1970-78: zero to three 3-digit
ICDA-8
procedure codes: 1979-97: zero to four
4-digit
ICD-9-CM procedure codes)
Dates of procedures, if procedure codes are not zero
(1979-92:
one to four; month, day year)
This
data item is not available on the 1993-97
files
or on the multiyear file.
Hospital data
Bed size of hospital
Ownership of hospital
Length of stay in days
Weight (final adjusted weight for each sample record)
Geographic region of hospital
Data
file technical characteristics
The following list
describes the specific characteristics of each file for each data year.
The CD-ROM format comes with the Statistical Export and Tabulation System (SETS)
retrieval software. Data on diskettes are a complete package and include
software for accessing the database files, for computing rates of selected
populations, and for creating subfiles for use with other software
packages. (SETS)
retrieval software. Data on diskettes are a complete package and include
software for accessing the database files, for computing rates of selected
populations, and for creating subfiles for use with other software
packages.
The multiyear CD-ROM
files, which cover the years 1979 to 1996, have 3,778,368 non-newborn
records and 422,512 newborn records.
Data
year
Number
of
records
1997
300,464
1996
282,008
1995
262,809
1994
276,533
1993
235,411
1992
274,273
1991
274,311
1990
265,556
1989
233,493
1988
250,243
1987
180,982
1986
193,005
1985
194,801
1984
192,083
1983
206,027
1982
213,732
1981
226,585
1980
223,785
1979
215,243
1978
199,791
1977
224,134
1976
223,196
1975
231,670
1974
227,323
1973
224,784
1972
224,504
1971
197,727
1970
205,675
Geographic
coverage
The NHDS is a nationwide survey that allows analysis at the U.S. Bureau of
the Census region level (division level before 1988).
Data
availability
Hospital utilization data are collected annually. Data are available for
individual years from 1970-97. The multi-year file contains
data from 1979-97 and is available on CD-ROM. Data diskettes are available
from 1985-94.
Ordering
information
The NHDS ASCII CD-ROM and diskettes can be purchased
through the National Technical Information Service (NTIS).
The SETS CD-ROMscan be purchased from NTIS and the Government Printing Office (GPO).
Please contact NTIS and GPO for the most current prices. The NTIS
and GPO order numbers are as follows:
Data on CD-ROM
- ASCII
Data
year
NTIS
order no.
1997
PB99-501653
1996
PB98-502395
1995
PB98-500176
1994
PB96-503149
1993
PB95-503389
1992
PB94-501103
1991
PB93-500726
1990
PB92-500818
1989
PB91-507368
1988
PB90-502329
1987
PB89-121537
1986
PB88-129440
1985
PB87-125613
1984
PB86-107737
1983
PB85-152304
1982
PB85-153658
1981
PB85-152338
1980
PB83-126318
1979-96
(Multiyear data)
PB99-500563
1979
PB82-179334
1978
PB82-179342
1977
PB82-179326
1976
PB82-179227
1975
PB-270773
1974
PB-270771
1973
PB-270769
1972
PB-270767
1971
PB-270765
1970
PB-270763
Data
on diskette - ASCII
Data
year
NTIS
order no.
1994
PB97-502687
1993
PB95-503512
1992
PB94-504537
1991
PB93-505857
1990
PB93-504819
1989
PB93-504744
1988
PB93-504728
1987
PB93-504702
1986
PB93-504660
1985
PB93-504645
Data
on CD-ROM - SETS
Data
year
GPO
order no.
NTIS
order no.
1997
017-022-01460-2
PB99-501827
1996
017-022-01459-9
PB99-501819
1994
017-022-01391-6
PB97-502942
1990
017-022-01229-4
PB94-501251
Multi-year
data on CD-ROM - SETS
Data
year
GPO
order no.
NTIS
order no.
1979-97
017-022-01463-7
PB99-501876
Documentation
content
Each NHDS product contains the necessary documentation, including content
and technical information, needed to access the data. Documentation is
available electronically on the CD-ROM and documentation for the diskettes
are included in the software package.
Related
reports
Reports that relate to the data and sample design are available in Vital
and Health Statistics, Series 2
and 13.
Data are also published in the Advance
Data series.
Contact
Hospital Care Statistics Branch
Division of Health Care Statistics
National Center for Health Statistics
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
3311 Toledo Road, Room 3409
Hyattsville, Maryland 20782
(301) 458-4321