National Hospital Discharge Survey 2005: U.S. Patient and Hospital Data

The 2005 National Hospital Discharge Survey (NHDS) collects annual medical and demographic information from a sample of hospital discharge records. It includes patient demographics, admission and discharge details, diagnoses, procedures, and hospital characteristics, with medical information coded using ICD-9-CM. The dataset was created by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, National Center for Health Statistics.

Use Cases

• Analyze patient demographics and admission patterns based on sex, age, race, and marital status variables.
• Study hospital procedure trends and outcomes based on surgical and nonsurgical procedure codes.
• Model healthcare payment and cost structures based on the sources of payment variable.
• Investigate regional healthcare disparities based on hospital characteristics like region and ownership.

Strengths

• Includes a defined set of variables covering patient demographics, medical diagnoses, procedures, and hospital characteristics.
• Medical information is standardized using the ICD-9-CM coding system.
• Data is collected annually from a national sample, suggesting a structured methodology.

Limitations

• Row count, file formats, and exact sample 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

Collected annually from a sample of hospital discharge records.

Time Range

2005

Freshness

Data is from the year 2005; update frequency is unknown.

Geography

United States