Nationwide Hospital Readmissions Database with 18 Million Annual Discharges

Approximately 18 million unweighted hospital discharges annually provide a nationally representative view of readmission rates for all payers and uninsured patients. Developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the database contains over 100 clinical and non-clinical data elements from discharge abstracts. It is designed to analyze national trends in readmissions, reasons for return, and associated hospital costs.

Use Cases

• Analyze readmission rates segmented by patient demographics like age and expected source of payer.
• Model the relationship between length of stay, total charges, and subsequent readmission events.
• Investigate patterns in diagnoses and procedures for discharges with and without repeat hospital visits.
• Estimate national hospital costs for readmissions using weighted data representing roughly 35 million discharges.

Strengths

• Nationally representative scale with approximately 18 million unweighted discharge records annually.
• Contains over 100 specific data elements including diagnoses, procedures, and patient demographics.
• Estimates a population of roughly 35 million discharges when weighted.
• Data is drawn from verified HCUP State Inpatient Databases with patient linkage numbers for tracking within states.

Limitations

• Not designed for regional, state, or hospital-specific analyses, limiting granularity.
• Excludes data elements that could identify individuals, which may limit certain linkage or validation studies.
• Access requires a data use agreement and security training, creating a barrier to immediate use.

Provenance

Source

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

Collection Method

Drawn from HCUP State Inpatient Databases containing verified patient linkage numbers.

Time Range

Annual data collection.

Freshness

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Geography

Nationwide United States.