HCUP's 2012 Nationwide Emergency Department Sample Released

The 2012 Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (NEDS) has been released. The NEDS is the largest all-payer emergency department (ED) database in the United States and contains information about geographic, hospital, patient and visit characteristics. The NEDS is part of the family of health care databases and related software tools and products produced by the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP), sponsored by AHRQ. The NEDS enables analyses of ED utilization patterns and yields information that supports public health professionals, administrators, policymakers and clinicians in decision making regarding this critical source of care. The 2012 NEDS is available for purchase through the HCUP Central Distributor. Select aggregated statistics can be accessed via HCUPnet. Several HCUP Statistical Briefs use NEDS data to describe ED use.