National Hospital Discharge Survey: U.S. Inpatient Records for 2003

The National Hospital Discharge Survey (NHDS) is an annual sample of hospital discharge records collected by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, National Center for Health Statistics. The 2003 dataset includes patient demographics, admission and discharge details, diagnoses, procedures, and hospital characteristics. Medical information is coded using the International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM).

Use Cases

• Analyze patient demographics and admission trends based on age, sex, race, and marital status variables.
• Study hospital resource utilization based on features like bedsize, ownership, and region.
• Model diagnosis and procedure patterns using ICD-9-CM coded medical information.
• Investigate payment sources and discharge status for healthcare economics research.

Strengths

• Data is collected by the authoritative U.S. National Center for Health Statistics.
• Includes a wide range of variables covering demographics, clinical details, and hospital characteristics.
• Medical data uses the standardized ICD-9-CM coding system.

Limitations

• Row count and file size are 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

Annual sample of hospital discharge records.

Time Range

2003

Freshness

Data is from 2003; update frequency is annual.

Geography

United States