SPARCS: New York Hospital Inpatient Discharges with Costs and Outcomes for 2013

The Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System (SPARCS) Inpatient De-identified File contains discharge-level detail on patient characteristics, diagnoses, treatments, services, and charges for 2013. This de-identified data is provided by health.data.ny.gov and does not contain protected health information (PHI). The file includes 30 columns covering demographics, clinical classifications, financials, and facility information.

Use Cases

• Modeling Length of Stay using Age Group, APR Severity of Illness Description, and Type of Admission.
• Analyzing cost drivers by correlating Total Charges with APR DRG Description and CCS Procedure Description.
• Profiling patient demographics and outcomes by Hospital County using Gender, Race, Ethnicity, and Patient Disposition.
• Classifying payment typologies using Payment Typology 2 alongside clinical factors like APR Risk of Mortality.

Strengths

• Contains 30 detailed columns including clinical classifications (APR DRG Code, CCS Diagnosis Code), financials (Total Costs, Total Charges), and demographics.
• Data is de-identified to HIPAA standards, with direct identifiers like specific dates removed.
• Provided by an authoritative state health organization (health.data.ny.gov) via the SPARCS system.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale modeling.
• Data is from a single year (2013), limiting longitudinal analysis.
• Geographic detail is limited to 3-digit Zip Code and Hospital County, not full patient location.

Provenance

Source

health.data.ny.gov via the Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System (SPARCS).

Collection Method

Administrative discharge data collected from hospitals, de-identified for public release.

Time Range

2013

Freshness

Last updated 2025-04-01 18:25:41; freshness should be verified.

Geography

New York State, indicated by Hospital County and Health Service Area columns.