Data Watch: New book from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Data Watch
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) recently rolled out its new fact book Hospitalization in the United States. This comprehensive overview of hospital care is free. It features statistics on uncommon diagnoses and procedures as well as reasons for hospitalization among various subpopulations. For program planning and policy decisions, it’s one of the most complete background resources around. The report draws from AHRQ’s Nationwide Inpatient Sample database of 7 million records.
Features
• Findings are presented in eight categories including age and gender, hospital admissions, reasons for hospitalization, comorbidities, most expensive and longest stays, insurance and hospital stays, discharges, and in-hospital mortality.
• Tables and charts are arranged for separate downloading.
Highlights from the book
• Types of conditions treated. Depression is one of the top 10 conditions treated in short-term hospitals. Pneumonia is a top 10 condition for all age groups.
• Admissions through emergency departments (ED). Of the top 10 ED admission categories, five are heart problems; three are respiratory problems; and two are infections, specifically pneumonia and blood infection (septicemia).
• Most expensive conditions treated in hospitals. Infant respiratory distress tops the list at $68,000. Four of the most expensive are not among longest stays: Heart valve disorders, cardiac congenital anomalies, aneurysms, and burns.
• Who gets the bill? Medicare and Medicaid are billed for 54% of hospital stays. About 5% of hospital patients are uninsured.
• Outcomes. About 2.5% of hospital stays end in death. Four of the top 10 conditions with the highest in-hospital death rates are related to cancer.
Subsequent fact books will examine topics including hospital procedures and care for women and children.
Information and access
• Download Hospitalization in the United States from www.ahrq.gov. Click on "Data and Surveys," then on "Healthcare Cost & Utilization Project." The 1.7 KB PDF file requires Acrobat Reader software.
• Order a hard copy of the book through AHRQ Publications Clearinghouse, P.O. Box 8547, Silver Spring, MD 20907. Telephone: (800) 358-9295. Order on-line via the Web site listed above.
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