The National Hospital Discharge Survey (NHDS) collects medical and demographic information annually from a sample of hospital discharge records. The 2002 dataset includes variables such as patient demographics, admission and discharge dates, diagnoses, procedures, and hospital characteristics. It was produced by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, National Center for Health Statistics.
Use Cases
- Analyze patient discharge status trends based on demographic characteristics mentioned in the description
- Study patterns in surgical and nonsurgical procedures based on procedure data
- Model hospital resource utilization based on hospital characteristics like bedsize and ownership
- Research healthcare payment systems based on sources of payment data
Strengths
- Includes a standardized medical coding system (ICD-9-CM) for diagnoses and procedures
- Contains multiple data categories: patient demographics, hospital characteristics, and clinical details
Limitations
- Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
Provenance
- Source
- United States Department of Health and Human Services. National Center for Health Statistics
- Collection Method
- Annual collection from a sample of hospital discharge records
- Time Range
- 2002
- Geography
- United States