National Hospital Discharge Survey: 1988 U.S. Inpatient Records

United States hospital discharge records from 1988, providing statistics on hospital utilization. The dataset contains medical and demographic information abstracted from patient records in a national sample of nonfederal short-stay hospitals. It was produced by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, National Center for Health Statistics.

Use Cases

• Analyze hospital utilization rates based on admission and discharge dates.
• Study demographic disparities in healthcare based on patient age, sex, race, and marital status.
• Model diagnosis and procedure patterns based on the medical codes included.
• Investigate payment sources and hospital characteristics like bedsize and ownership.

Strengths

• Data is sourced from a national sample of hospitals, providing a broad perspective.
• Includes multiple feature categories: patient demographics, dates, diagnoses, procedures, and hospital characteristics.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

United States Department of Health and Human Services. National Center for Health Statistics

Collection Method

Survey data abstracted from face sheets of medical records for sampled inpatients.

Time Range

1988

Freshness

1988 data; historical snapshot.

Geography

United States (national sample)