No.
140. National Hospital Discharge Survey: Annual Summary, 1996.
52 pp. (PHS) 98-1799. View/download
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The latest data on
surgical and nonsurgical procedures performed in the United States are now
available from the National Center for Health Statistics in a
comprehensive report covering procedures performed in both inpatient and
ambulatory settings. The report presents the latest findings from two
components of the National Health Care Survey: The National Hospital
Discharge Survey and the National Survey of Ambulatory Surgery. The
surveys are based on samples of discharges from samples of hospitals and
freestanding ambulatory surgery facilities. This report presents data on
surgical and nonsurgical (for example, diagnostic procedures such as
endoscopies) procedures, including numbers and rates by sex, age, and
geographic region. Highlights of this report include these findings:
In
1996, an estimated 72 million surgical and nonsurgical procedures were
performed on almost 40 million ambulatory and inpatient discharges
combined. The number of discharges with procedures performed on an
ambulatory and inpatient basis did not differ significantly--about 20
million each--but hospital inpatients were likely to have more procedures
performed during the hospital stay than those utilizing an ambulatory
facility.
Women were more likely
than men to have surgery. For ambulatory patients and hospital inpatients
combined, women accounted for 59 percent of discharges and 58 percent of
procedures. The discharge rate was 37 percent higher and the rate of
procedures was 34 percent higher for females than males.
Rates of discharges
and procedures increased with age. Children under 15 years of age had the
lowest number of procedures. Only 4.3 million procedures--6 percent of
ambulatory and inpatient procedures combined--were for children. Persons
45-64 had (18.1 million) or 25 percent of the total. More than two-thirds
of procedures were for persons 15-44 years age (24.2 million) and those 65
years of age and over (25.3 million).
Looking at the
patterns by region in the United States, the South had the largest number
of ambulatory and inpatient procedures combined, 23.5 million, compared
with 16.4 million in the Northeast, 16.7 million in the Midwest, and 15.3
million in the West.
The leading surgical
and nonsurgical procedures performed on ambulatory patients and inpatients
combined were arteriography and angiocardiography, endoscopy of small
intestine, endoscopy of large intestine, and extraction of lens. These
four procedures were each done more than 2 million times in 1996.