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Overview of the State Ambulatory Surgery Databases (SASD)
The SASD are a set of longitudinal State-specific hospital outpatient databases included in the HCUP family. These databases are created by AHRQ through a Federal-State-Industry partnership.
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State Ambulatory Surgery Databases

The State Ambulatory Surgery Databases (SASD) are one in a family of databases and software tools developed as part of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP). A Federal-State-Industry partnership sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, HCUP data inform decision making at the national, State, and community levels. This page provides an overview of the SASD. For more details, see Introduction to the SASD (PDF file, 107 KB).

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The State Ambulatory Surgery Databases (SASD) are a powerful set of databases, from data organizations in participating States, that capture surgeries performed on the same day in which patients are admitted and released. SASD data are available through the HCUP Central Distributor.
  • The SASD contain the ambulatory surgery encounter abstracts in participating States, translated into a uniform format to facilitate multi-state comparisons and analyses.
  • All of the databases include abstracts from hospital-affiliated ambulatory surgery sites. Some contain the universe of ambulatory surgery encounter abstracts for that State, including records from both hospital-affiliated and freestanding surgery centers. Composition and completeness of data files may vary from State to State.
  • The SASD contain a core set of clinical and non-clinical information on all patients, regardless of payer, including persons covered by Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance, and the uninsured.
  • In addition to the core set of uniform data elements common to all SASD, some include other elements, such as the patient's race.
The SASD contain clinical and resource use information included in a typical discharge abstract, with safeguards to protect the privacy of individual patients, physicians, and hospitals (as required by data sources).

The SASD exclude data elements that could directly or indirectly identify individuals. Purchase of the files is open to all users who sign a Data Use Agreement (PDF file, 55 KB; HTML). Users must agree to use the database for research and statistical purposes only and to make no attempts to identify individuals.

Identities of institutions are available only in States where data sources already make that information public or agree to its release. For these institutions and for research purposes only, linkage is possible to data from the American Hospital Association (AHA) Annual Survey Database (Health Forum, LLC © 2007).

Select for Introduction to the SASD (PDF file, 107 KB).

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The SASD contain more than 100 clinical and non-clinical variables included in a hospital discharge abstract, such as:

  • All-listed diagnoses (e.g., benign neoplasms, cataracts, diverticulosis)
  • All-listed procedures (e.g., cataract procedures, colonoscopy, upper GI endoscopy, cardiac catherization)
  • Discharge status
  • Patient demographics (e.g., gender, age, and, for some States, race)
  • Expected payment source (e.g., Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance, self-pay; for some States, additional discrete payer categories, such as managed care)
  • Total charges
  • Hospital identifiers that permit linkage to inpatient hospital databases, such as the AHRQ-sponsored State Inpatient Databases (SID), and to the American Hospital Association Annual Survey File
  • For some States, hospital county identifiers that permit linkage to the Area Resource File.
A list of SASD variables available by State is provided under SASD Database Documentation. This section also includes a detailed description of each SASD variable. The SASD excludes data elements that could directly or indirectly identify individuals.

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Twenty-eight States now participate in the SASD (Select to access contact information for the participating data organization in these States):

California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, and Wisconsin.

A number of States make SASD files available for purchase through the HCUP Central Distributor.

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The SASD are well suited for research that requires complete enumeration of hospital-based ambulatory surgery within market areas or States. Researchers and policymakers use the SASD to compare inpatient surgery data with ambulatory surgery data, conduct market area research or small area variation analyses, and identify State-specific trends in ambulatory surgery utilization, access, charges, and outcomes.

Research questions that SASD can address include:

  • What proportion of all breast cancer procedures are performed in hospital-based ambulatory surgery facilities?
  • Does the distribution of a hospital's surgery between inpatient and outpatient settings vary by type of hospital, e.g., teaching hospital vs. nonteaching?
  • Does volume of procedures performed in hospital-based ambulatory surgery facilities vary across States?
  • Is there a correlation between whether a particular procedure is performed on an inpatient versus outpatient basis and type of insurance coverage?
  • How do outcomes compare for procedures performed on an inpatient versus outpatient basis?
  • How do outcomes and costs vary by patient and facility characteristics?
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The SASD data set can be run on desktop computers with a CD-ROM reader, and comes in ASCII format. The data on the CD set require a statistical software package such as SAS or SPSS to use for analytic purposes. The data set comes with full documentation. SAS and SPSS users are provided programs for converting ASCII files.

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SASD files beginning in 1997 are available through the AHRQ-sponsored HCUP Central Distributor. The HCUP Central Distributor can provide more detailed, descriptive information on the SASD and assist purchasers in completing the application.

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For answers to commonly asked questions regarding HCUP databases and tools, please review the HCUP Index Page. If you cannot find an answer to your question, please contact HCUP User Support Staff.

To reach HCUP User Support, please contact us by e-mail or phone: We review messages daily and will respond to all inquiries within 3 business days.

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Internet Citation: HCUP Databases. Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP). July 2009 Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/sasdoverview.jsp.
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Last modified 7/16/09