Research Activities, January 2011: Announcements: 2008 HCUP Facts and Figures report provides statistics on hospital visits

Announcements
2008 HCUP Facts and Figures report provides statistics on hospital visits

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has released HCUP Facts and Figures: Statistics on Hospital-Based Care in the United States, 2008, available online on the HCUP-US Web site (http://hcup-us.ahrq.gov/reports.jsp). The new report uses the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project's (HCUP's) Nationwide Inpatient Sample database to present information about hospital care in 2008, as well as trends in care from 1993 to 2008.

HCUP Facts and Figures features an overview of numerous hospital-related topics, including general characteristics of U.S. hospitals and the patients treated; the most common diagnoses, conditions, and procedures associated with inpatient stays; the costs and charges associated with hospitalizations; and the payers for inpatient stays. A special section of this year's report examines trends in inpatient and emergency department care for mental health and substance abuse conditions.

HCUP's 2007 Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (NEDS) database provided data on this topic. Funding for this section came from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (http://www.samhsa.gov). As an example, one topic in the report shows that the number of hospital admissions among Americans aged 45 and older for medication and drug-related conditions doubled between 1997 and 2008. Medication and drug-related conditions include effects of both prescription and over-the-counter medications as well as illicit drugs.

For more information about the report, please visit the HCUP-US Web site at http://hcup-us.ahrq.gov, or contact HCUP User Support at hcup@ahrq.gov.

Research Activities, January 2011: Announcements: 2008 HCUP Facts and Figures report provides statistics on hospital visits