The 2006 National Hospital Discharge Survey (NHDS) collects medical and demographic information annually from a sample of hospital discharge records. It includes patient demographics, admission and discharge details, diagnoses, procedures, and hospital characteristics. The data is coded using the ICD-9-CM classification and was produced by the U.S. 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 resource utilization based on hospital characteristics like bedsize, ownership, and region.
- Investigate diagnosis and procedure trends using ICD-9-CM coded medical information.
- Examine payment sources and discharge status for healthcare economics research.
Strengths
- Includes both patient-level medical data and hospital-level characteristics.
- Medical information is standardized using the ICD-9-CM classification system.
- Data is collected annually from a national sample, suggesting a structured methodology.
Limitations
- Row count and dataset 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
- 2006
- Geography
- United States