National Hospital Discharge Survey: Annual Summary, 1996 An estimate of 30.5 million patients, excluding newborn infants, were discharged from short-stay non-Federal hospitals in the United States in 1996. This and other inpatient data are presented in a new report from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). Inpatients in 1996 used 159.9 million days of hospital care. The average length of stay was 5.2 days and the discharge rate was 115.7 per 1,000 civilian population. These statistics, along with other inpatient data by diagnoses, procedures, sex, age, and geographic region, are presented in the NCHS report, "National Hospital Discharge Survey: Annual Summary, 1996." Data Highlights:Deliveries and heart disease combined accounted for 8 million discharges and made up 26 percent of all first-listed diagnoses. Heart disease was the first-listed diagnosis for 23 percent of discharges for patients 65 years and over. At least one procedure was reported for 63 percent of discharges. In 1996, 73 percent of women with deliveries were hospitalized for less than 3 days, compared with only 26 percent in 1980. In 1996, 73 percent of all human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) discharges were male and 71 percent were 25-44 years of age. Keywords: hospitalization, inpatient, diagnoses, procedures
This page last reviewed January 11, 2007
|